Facebook Changes Real-Name Policy. Apologises to Drag Queens, Drag Kings and members & friends & families of LGBT community. Promises no more Crackdown on Pseudonyms.
Thus, Facebook with more than 1.32 billion has to change its name policy for Lil Miss Hot Miss, Sister Roma and other drag queens.
Why Drag queen and members of LGBT gor really affected by the crackdown of the pseudonyms?
The answer to this lies in the very foundation of Social networks. As the name suggest, social networks are places online where people socialize. Just like the real world, the socializing will be more effective if people present themselves as they are. I mean in terms of their identity, contact and their likes & dislikes. Majority of people on Facebook use their real identities as they want the person they are communicating with to reciprocate. Else, how will they know the goodness of the other person.
In case of LGBT community, the use of real identities is not a norm. Both in real and online world. That's why they found the crackdown an infringement of their rights as a human being. Within their community, they interact effectively under the veil of a pseudonym. Since the importance of the separation of real and LGBT world is well accepted by the community, hence they never try to get to the real identity, even when they meet in the real world. Unfortunately, this respect from privacy is not respected by non-LGBTs (Non Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenders). That's why the moment some Facebook users see a pseudonym on the Facebook profile of someone visibly belonging to the community, they flag the account as violating Facebook Policy. There may be no ill-will on part of such users, as they may be reporting such accounts in over-enthusiasm to keep Facebook an Utopia.
Christopher Cox, Facebook's product chief, does acknowledge this fact, when he said on Wednesday that the people most affected by the recent sweep belonged to the community of drag queen, who many users thought were violating Facebook's real-name policy.
But such flagging can be understood as Facebook's Name Policy at one place states :
Please refrain from adding any of these to your name:
Titles of any kind (ex: professional, religious).
Words, phrases or nicknames in place of a middle name.
Offensive or suggestive words of any kind.
The drag queens who protested against the partial treatment of their community, have Facebook names such as : Sister Roma, Lil Miss Hot Miss etc. I'm not saying everyone used such names. But those who do, can easily come under the radar.
For the above reason, other groups of Facebook users, such as political dissidents living under authoritarian regimes, human-rights advocates, who just like the drag queens, may not be using their real names, did not saw their accounts reports. As the pseudonyms they use may not be that violative of Facebook's name policy. They may see their accounts scanned for objectionable content though.
The Facebook has not clarified that such names will now be allowed. That's the community will be able to use their stage names on Facebook.
Ordinary Facebook users flagging other people's accounts and updates as violating Facebook's policy can be understood from the fact that Human Beings see objections according to their viewpoints. They may flag a lesbian kiss or drag queen photograph as objectionable, but will 'Like' a religiously divisive content.
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