Facebook Won't Budge On Drag Names

Despite meeting yesterday with several Bay Area drag personalities, Facebook is sticking by its "real name" requirement. Tony Meverick reports at Buzzfeed:

Activists said they remain angry with Facebook after leaving the hour-long meeting with only little progress, as the company refused to budge on changing its long-held policy requiring users to show their legal names on their personal profiles. In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Facebook spokesperson Andrew Souvall said that despite the discussion with activists, the company will continue to emphasize the importance of requiring all users to display their “real names.” “We had a good discussion with the group about their perspectives on our real name standard, and we stressed how the standard helps prevent bad behavior, while creating a safer and more accountable environment,” Souvall said in the statement. In recent days, activists have publicly challenged the policy, saying that it severely impacts people in the LGBT community who for one reason or another, choose not to use their given names. Drag queens said they were negatively impacted by the policy because using their legal names could isolate them on social media, seeing as they are widely known in their communities by their stage names or chosen names.

At the meeting Facebook admitted that the drag accounts were deleted after complaints. Previously it had been claimed that the accounts were only found after changes to a Facebook algorithm. For now, Facebook has reinstated the drag accounts for two weeks to give users time to decide about changing to their legal names.