Skip to footer

Facebook builds new app that allows fake names: report

Amid protests, Facebook began enforcing its real-name policy. But now it's reported that Facebook is working on its own anonymous social media app.

|
Dado Ruvic/Reuters/File
A man is silhouetted against a video screen with an Facebook logo in Bosnian on Aug. 14, 2013.

Since its founding Facebook has demanded authentic names from users, but in a contradiction of that policy, Facebook may be attempting to create a new social media site based on anonymity. 

Facebook is believed to be working on a stand-alone mobile application that allows users to have any name they want, according to The New York Times. The app, which is supposed to be unveiled in coming weeks, is an experimental take on Facebook's longstanding demand for user authenticity.

“[Authenticity] is part of what made Facebook special in the first place,” Chris Cox, Facebook’s chief product officer, said according to the Times. “By differentiating the service from the rest of the internet where pseudonymity, anonymity, or often random names were the social norm.”

The app is being developed by a group of developers who helped create the social media site Branch, which Facebook bought in January. This new app would be in the spirit of Secret or Whisper, which allow users to share anonymous photos and posts. The two sites have become popular with younger users. 

Facebook spokespeople would not confirm the development of an anonymous app to the Times.

But recent events show that Facebook still isn't fully backing the anonymous user. In September, Facebook began enforcing its policy that users use their real name. This caused an uproar among members of the LGBTQ community, who often use different names online for a number of reasons. Users protested the policy, and Facebook eventually apologized. 

It isn't clear how the new anonymous app will protect users from trolls or spammers. But previously, Facebook insisted that its real-name policy was used to protect users. 

“The stories of mass impersonation, trolling, domestic abuse, and higher rates of bullying and intolerance are oftentimes the result of people hiding behind fake names, and it’s both terrifying and sad,” Mr. Cox told the Times.

Facebook has been buying up small social media apps in an attempt to become a suite of products. Facebook bought the photo-sharing app Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, it just closed a $22 billion deal with messaging app WhatsApp, and in June it bought Slingshot, a photo-app that lets users share photos that disappear after a few seconds. Instagram already allows for users to have any username they chose.  

As Facebook continues to grow its product line, it seems clear that Facebook (the company) doesn't have a clear policy on anonymity even if Facebook (the website) does. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Facebook builds new app that allows fake names: report
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Tech/2014/1008/Facebook-builds-new-app-that-allows-fake-names-report
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe