Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox apologized...
Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox apologized to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community after pushback over the company’s real-name policy (http://on.fb.me/1oELNCB). Facebook has a policy that says names on its profiles “should be your authentic identity ... as…
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our acceptable identification forms would show” (http://on.fb.me/1sPc6gx). In the past few weeks, Facebook deleted a slate of accounts reported to it as fake, some of which were the accounts for drag queens, drag kings and transgender individuals, Cox said on Facebook’s blog. “We've had the chance to hear from many of you in these communities and understand the policy more clearly as you experience it,” he said. “We owe you a better service and a better experience using Facebook, and we're going to fix the way this policy gets handled so everyone affected here can go back to using Facebook as you were.” Cox said Facebook’s policy is not intended to require people to use their legal name, just the “authentic name they use in real life.” Individuals like Sister Roma and Lil Miss Hot Mess -- both affected in the last two weeks -- should be able to use those names on their accounts, Cox said. Facebook will consider better ways to assess the veracity of names on accounts, but will continue to stick to its policy. “First, it’s part of what made Facebook special in the first place, by differentiating the service from the rest of the internet where pseudonymity, anonymity, or often random names were the social norm,” said Cox. “Second, it’s the primary mechanism we have to protect millions of people every day, all around the world, from real harm."