Facebook has said that every account should represent a real person, and that having an “authentic” identity is essential to the Facebook experience. But using a pseudonym does not mean that you are not a real person. Right? This policy is also said to help keep the online community safe.
There have been countless debates around Facebook’s real-name policy. A policy that dictates how people set up their user profiles, more specifically which names they use. According to Facebook, the real-name policy is rooted in the perspective that in this way one will always know who they’re communicating with. The will to implement this policy has been around since 2006. The touted aim is also to get rid of fake and spam accounts.
Facebook, however, does not take into account that safety is defined differently by different people. Users who cannot use their legal names are being targeted. Their accounts are reported, and suspended on a daily basis. There are many possible scenarios where one would want to or need to use a different name, for example victims of crime or LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex) activists in countries where it is illegal. Or perhaps one just doesn’t like the name given at birth. Given the “dream” policy that Facebook wants to keep the network safe for all, one needs to ask what some of the users think about this policy.
There have been serious human rights violations with regards to sexuality which occur both offline and online. When it comes to online freedom of expression, privacy and censorship one could almost guarantee discussions around gender and sexuality will arise. The real name policy is no different. The policy has been criticised by evictims of crime, and the LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual) community. There are many good reasons to stay anonymous online, whether it’s because you live in a place where it’s not safe to speak freely or because you want to find out more about a topic you don’t want others to know you’re interested in.
Between April 2015 and September 2015, the Association for Progressive Communications’ (APC) EROTICS project conducted a flash online survey between their networks of LGBTQIA activists from around the world on Facebook’s “real name” policy to find out what they thought about this policy. Although the number of responses was small, it still showed some dispositions in activists’ behaviours regarding this matter. The few responses that were received came from countries from all around the globe and it showed that the feelings toward the policy were more or less the same.
Read the full Feminist Talk in GenderIT.org .