Get ready, guys: Facebook is about to go anonymous. Kind of.
Yup, just days after Facebook agreed to change its policies requiring users to employ their real names on the site, news that the social network plans to launch a mobile app that will allow us all to go by whatever name we desire hit the scene.
The New York Times has the inside intel on the app, which will allow users to talk inside of Facebook without using their real names. The app is expected to come out in the next few weeks, but details about how it will work are scarce. Perhaps it will utilize Facebook Groups? Or perhaps it will simply be a new chat app, like Messenger? All we have are guesses at the moment.
News of the app comes after Facebook last week apologized to users adversely affected by the site’s “real name” policy, which requires people to use their actual names on Facebook. The policy came under fire these past few weeks when someone decided to report hundreds of accounts as fake, many of which were those of drag queens using their stage names on the social network. This led to a lot of heat from the drag community, as well as LGBTQ users who prefer using names other than those given at birth, according to the Times.
Facebook is working on amending that policy now, first reinstating those shut-down accounts, but how it will handle the chosen name-versus-given name question in the future is still unclear. Issues only arise when someone reports a false name on the site, so Facebook did say they would be working on amending the process for when an allegedly fake account is flagged.
Still, Facebook has always been about identity — specifically, non-anonymous, open identity — so it seems the social network won’t be going the way of Reddit any time soon. This new app, however, could create an intriguing ecosystem within the larger site. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Brenna Ehrlich
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