Facebook will loosen policy for drag queens

For over ten years now, Facebook has had this policy that requires you to enter your real name that is contingent with your actual life when you are creating a Facebook account. They put this real name policy into place to promote and protect user safety (by the lack of anonymity), and at the same time is serves to protect and respect identity. Algorithms and individuals report thousands and thousands of fake names each week. It was said by Chris Cox in his report that 99% of these reported are "bad actors doing bad things." He went on to say that one "individual" recently reported several hundred fake accounts and Facebook apparently failed to "notice the pattern."

Sister Roma was one of the Drag Queens whose account was suspended. She also made the hashtag "MyNameIs" extremely popular. She started using "ello" which has no similar policy, and now the internet community may be worried about whether this social network could build a user network that could be comparable to Facebook. 

Facebook is now aware of this issue, and it is assumed that they will have to change this policy to comfort and respect the lifestyles of some users, as the CEO stated they were unaware that they were harming groups. Cox stated that they are going to have to find a better way to authenticate the identity of the rest of the "Sister Romas of the world."

This actually worries me, but I still have a little faith. I think authenticity in social networking is very important to maintain regarding user identity. This way if something goes wrong, a crime is committed, someone is being bullied, or if someone's rights are infringed upon in some other way, Facebook can act on it as swiftly and effectively as possible, without question. Facebook could lurk into murky waters if they don't change this policy carefully. At the same time, I'm sure there is a way that they could require true identity or documented identity when creating the account, then allowing for "stage names" and such for users that this applies to. There needs to be more communication in this network system. 

It is really interesting to see how many norms have evolved and be adapted, and new ones have been accepted and put into place. I can't imagine this being a discussion or issue decades ago. I think it is a good thing that these individuals, as well as the rest of the population, are being respected on the internet, because this either emulates or foreshadows (or both) how they are treated in real life. Respect should be universal, and it has been becoming less and less acceptable to be disrespectful. It seems to me that the standard has evolved to requiring respect for everyone more and more equally as time passes. It is interesting to see even Facebook adapting, and I'm interested to see what policies are put into place over the next decade to further evolve the site. It seems to be a hard trend to predict. 

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/01/technology/facebook-real-name-policy/index.html