Facebook has often been criticized for its failure to allow its users to employ pseudonyms on their accounts. Unlike Twitter, its policy requires that users have a real name associated with their account. To many foreign dissident or reformers who use Facebook to communicate with supporters, providing a real name can have fatal consequences.
Last year, I read Revolution 2.0, the autobiography of Wael Ghonim, who anonymously administered the “We are all Khaled Saeed” Facebook page for the duration of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. The page rallied Egyptians in protest around the death of Khaled Said, a young Egyptian who was tortured and beaten to death by the Egyptian police. For weeks, Ghonim organized anti-government protests via the Facebook page. Under his guidance, it functioned as a point of community and organization for Egyptian activists. He did not administer the page under his real name because of the threat of kidnapping and torture from the Egyptian police, who were not known for their kindly treatment of political protesters. Shortly before a large protest that Ghonim was organizing was due to begin, Facebook shut his page down because it was associated with a pseudonym. Leaving protesters without information or a location for the protest, Facebook nearly prevented the demonstration from occurring. Fortunately, Ghonim was able to arrange for a friend who was living in America (and thus safe from the Egyptian police) to take on nominal responsibility for the page to placate Facebook. Naturally, the experiences in this book made me question the ethics of Facebook’s real name policy.
So when I stumbled upon an article with the headline “Facebook to Allow Pseudonyms For Verified Accounts,” I happily assumed that Facebook had decided to accommodate dissidents in danger from oppressive governments by allowing the use of pseudonyms. In fact, Facebook is making the change not to aid government protesters, but rather to court celebrities. Apparently, the move is intended to be of service to “prominent users” who are known better by a stage name than a given one, such as Lady Gaga or Madonna. Users can apply for a verified account by providing a government issued photo I.D. and Facebook will manually approve or deny their request. This policy change will not alter the plight of dissidents who use false names because users are still required to provide their real name to attain an account.
While I recognize that Facebook has an interest in having users employ their real names in the interest of preserving integrity and safety on its service, I am also keenly aware of the fact that the real name policy is far from strictly enforced. I have many acquaintances that changed their Facebook names to ludicrous pseudonyms (perhaps the most notable was “Sal-Sal Wood Nymph”) to hide their accounts from colleges last fall. Their accounts were never suspended for having fraudulent names. With this in mind, is it so wrong to suggest that perhaps Facebook should simply turn a blind eye to the use of pseudonyms when it seems to do otherwise would jeopardize the safety of a user? Its an unconventional approach, but if Facebook is willing to revise its actions for the sake of celebrities, then why not in the name of free speech?
Sources:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/facebook-shuts-down-dissident-chinese-blogger-michael-antis-account/story-e6frgakx-1226018927561
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