Facebook employees at the firm’s Menlo Park headquarters may look out their windows Tuesday and see people in drag protesting.
The issue: Facebook’s apparent crackdown enforcing its policy requiring people to use their real names.
Unlike Twitter and services like Snapchat, Facebook requires users to use their real names, arguing that people should be who they are on the site for safety reasons. But some have been using a pseudonym anyway.
According to Sister Roma, a drag queen who is part of the performing and activist group, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Facebook has been cracking down on violators. Last week, the service automatically logged her out of her account, which she has used since 2008.
She told the Daily Dot she “was instructed to log in and forced to change the name on my profile to my ‘legal name, like the one that appears on your drivers’ license or credit card.’ “
Worried her account would be suspended, Sister Roma changed her name to her legal name, Michael Williams on her Facebook page. She took to Twitter using the hashtag #MyNameIsRoma.
Sister Roma isn’t alone in her complaint.
Over the years, victims of sexual abuse, activists and others have raised concerns. A Change.org petition with more than 12,000 signatures accuses Facebook of forcing performers to use their real names and demands that the policy be changed.
Facebook told The Guardian:
If people want to use an alternative name on Facebook, they have several different options available to them, including providing an alias under their name on their profile, or creating a page specifically for that alternative persona…As part of our overall standards, we ask that people who use Facebook provide their real name on their profile.
That isn’t sitting well with Sister Roma and others.
Facebook has a financial incentive for its real name policy, the Wall Street Journal reports. It needs “detailed, accurate information about its users.” About 11 percent of Facebook user accounts are misclassified, alternate identities or fake, the Journal says.
On the protest’s’ Facebook page, supporters are called to show up in drag, (Even if it’s your first time!) and catch buses from San Francisco to Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters.
Some suggested drag characters include “Tech Executive Realness, Social Media Starlet.”
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