Facebook Under Fire For Discriminatory New Policy

Facebook is under fire – again – for suspending members not using their “real identities” on the social media platform, ignoring LGBTQI individuals who self-identify differently to their legal name.

As reported by The Huffington Post, the suspensions first came in 2014 with a message reading, “Facebook is a community where people use their real identities… we require everyone to provide their full name so you always know you’re connecting with.”

The real blow comes in the following line: “If you’re using a nickname, you can always add it back into your account later as an alternate name.” (The insult there, being, transgender individuals do not – and should not – consider their chosen names as “nicknames.”)

Members would need to provide forms of legal or government identification to restore their accounts, and then, only under their legal name.

The policy also endangers survivors of abuse using an alias, not to mention those with occupations that might require an element of online privacy, and drag performers.

Facebook apologised after “order of queer nuns” The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence took the social giant to task. “The spirit of the policy is that everyone on Facebook uses the authentic name they use in real life,” their official statement read.

However, the policy still stands, and as of March 5, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence claim “entire drag communities, burlesque performers and other users around the world are reporting that their accounts have been disabled.”

Facebook insist that their policy is to “root out accounts created for malicious purposes, like harassment, fraud, impersonation and hate speech.”

That may be true, but in refusing to accommodate those who do not have legal or government I.D. displaying their chosen name, are they not also enforcing another kind of harassment?