Facebook and Your "Real" Name

Recently my Facebook newsfeed has been buzzing about the company's enforcement of its official naming policy, specifically targeting a community of drag queens. Facebook's looming threat to delete the social profiles of these individuals if they refused to comply gained a lot of buzz - and people used Facebook itself to circulate their dissatisfaction. These performers shared their experiences and eventually received an apology. (Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox's apology can be read here.)

NPR

Not everyone is necessarily on the same page with why they disagree. Confusion abounds in the general population about what it means to be a drag queen, so not everyone is going to understand the intricacies of that identity or why it was so insulting.

My view: I recently graduated with an English major specializing in Ethnic Literature, so I talked a lot about "marginalized identities." I see a big company yielding it's power to become a gatekeeper of forms of identity expression. Telling individuals that the identity they can privilege is the one recognized by the government institution clearly leaves people with multiple coexisting identities at a disadvantage. But even if you don't look at this way, it seems Facebook saw how the tide of public opinion would shift based on another thing:

Social Media that tells me how to be social (and how to identify socially) is NOT good social media.

StraightFromTheA

I think in the beginning, Facebook's limitations of customization created a cleaner, easier to use look, that gave it legitimacy. MySpace lost credibility because it was too open to customization, which quickly became cluttered, unattractive, and difficult to use. The lack of insistence that your profile coincide with a verifiable identity decreased accountability and made profiles susceptible to spam.

Techsmart

Facebook's atmosphere insisted on legitimacy and use of "real" identities in a way that comforted people. It even facilitated people sharing themselves in a way that other people really wanted to see: your real name, real pictures of your face. You only friend people you actually know.

However, the performers using their stage names in their profiles were using identities that corresponded with real life. Pen names, nicknames, etc., still correspond with the spirit of connecting profiles with real people. I don't doubt that there will continue to be issues of this kind as the creation of social media profiles intersects with highly contested issues of identity.