14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook will be meeting with San Francisco city officials, as well as activists, following the heavy criticism the company has received for its real-name policy which discriminates against the LGBT community.
The company has recently come under scrutiny for requiring people to use their legal name on profiles, because drag performers and transgender people got locked out of their Facebook accounts or were forced to use names that they no longer identified with.
Although the policy is not exactly new, the impact it has on the LGBT community has caused quite an uproar. One member of a drag group, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, had to change her name on the social network even though she hadn’t used it in nearly 30 years.
“I am overwhelmed and moved to tears by the literally hundreds of emails I have received from people who are sharing their compelling stories explaining why they don't use their ‘real’ name on Facebook. I want you all to know that you are not alone, there are many people who were abused, shunned, discriminated against, fought custody battles, survived addiction, and maintain profiles that are very real and very separate from your legal identity,” Sister Roma wrote on her Facebook page.
Transgender people and drag performers have pointed out that they’re not the only ones suffering due to Facebook’s policy, but also people who may, for security reasons, need to use a pseudonym or even artists that are known under more stylized names.
18,000 signatures on an online petition
There’s even a petition making the rounds looking for support to urge Facebook to change its policy. There are nearly 18,000 signatures already.
“Recently, Facebook has been locking many performers out of their accounts until they change their names to their ‘legal identity.’ According to Facebook, this is to help build ‘authentic’ community, but in fact it undermines the online communities we have built over the past several years using our stage names. Our chosen names are an important part of our identities and how we interact with our peers and audiences,” the petition reads.
For its part, Facebook has told Mashable that there are already ways for users to use different names and that its policy is meant to foster user safety and accountability. The company’s spokesperson pointed out that people can provide an alias under their name on their profile or to create a page for that “alternative persona.”
Google has also come under fire for its way of forcing people to use their real names on Google+, and from there on YouTube, but the company has decided to change things earlier this year.