Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Facebook Your Rights Online

Facebook Apologizes To Drag Queens Over "Real Name" Rule 280

An anonymous reader writes Facebook apologized to drag queens and the LGBT community after an outcry over the social network's policy of requiring members to use real names on their accounts. While the policy itself will stay in place, Facebook says, it will be changing how the rule is enforced. In a Wednesday post, Facebook's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox apologized to "the affected community of drag queens, drag kings, transgender, and extensive community of our friends, neighbors, and members of the LGBT community for the hardship that we've put you through in dealing with your Facebook accounts over the past few weeks."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Facebook Apologizes To Drag Queens Over "Real Name" Rule

Comments Filter:
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:12AM (#48045647)

    If fb is serious and enforcing the policy, their user count will be reduced by at least 60 percent which essentially cut the worth of the company in half.

    • by mwvdlee ( 775178 )

      I dare bet fake names also account for a disproportionally large amount of activity.
      Why would you bother signing up a fake account if you're not going to use the account?

      • by Karl Cocknozzle ( 514413 ) <kcocknozzle&hotmail,com> on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:22AM (#48045689) Homepage

        I dare bet fake names also account for a disproportionally large amount of activity.
        Why would you bother signing up a fake account if you're not going to use the account?

        Anonymity is part of the Internet--it creates problems, sure, but it also allows people to say what they actually think without fear of being punished for having the "Wrong" viewpoint. For example, your bleeding heart liberal ways will likely run afoul of your boss' staunch conservatism, and if he's a jerk, might damage your career if he knew about it.

        There's nothing wrong with having any specific point of view, but about having the ability to selectively determine who knows you have this belief without being constrained about expressing it.

        • That's why you have Linkedin for your professional network, and Facebook for your private network. If your professional network can't handle your private views, then don't mix the two.
          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by Anonymous Coward

            That's why you have... Facebook for your private network.

            Ha Ha Ha! Good one!

        • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

          by oodaloop ( 1229816 )

          Anonymity is part of the Internet--

          You don't say, Mr. Cocknozzle.

        • by geekoid ( 135745 )

          "Anonymity is part of the Internet"
          no, it's an option on the internet. Companies don't need to allow it.

          Then don't accept friend request form people you don't want to see your account.
          Or is telling someone know to direct and not passive aggressive enough?

          "but about having the ability to selectively determine who knows you have this belief without being constrained about expressing it."
          then don't fucking announce it in a public forum.

          • then don't fucking announce it in a public forum.

            Utter nonsense: Anonymity is a requirement for true free speech. Much of the muckraking done to start the American Revolution was done anonymously because the authors of the papers didn't want to be hung by British loyalists. Ditto France. Ditto most major popular revolutions in truly oppressive countries: The real "thought leaders" publish anonymously to keep themselves alive.

            "Free speech" is meaningless if there isn't a way to publish something without your

      • by tepples ( 727027 )
        Because someone might be trying to sign up for some third party web site that has outsourced its authentication to Facebook Connect. Spotify and Answers.com used to have Facebook as the only login, and commenting on Huffington Post still does.
    • This retarded idea is probably going to kill fb off. It's amazing sometimes to watch some company implement a goddamn stupid idea and shoot themselves in the foot.
      • I've been saying for a while now that Facebook knows their headline product is doomed. They seem to be doing everything they can to assure that the company doesn't go down with its flagship site. Rushing its demise to squeeze a little more short term value out of it is entirely in keeping with that notion.

    • Yeah, but now Facebook--though still requiring you to use your real name, real address, real phone number, and real place of work in your profile--will allow you the option to check a box saying "I'm a transexual!!" for everyone in your small town to see. Isn't that apology enough???

  • Good to hear that they apologized.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:16AM (#48045667)

    I see no reason why any person with a private Facebook page should be given special status or exemptions from the rules just because of some arbitrary, momentarily popular PC BS category.

    • by OzPeter ( 195038 ) on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:23AM (#48045695)

      I see no reason why any person with a private Facebook page should be given special status or exemptions from the rules just because of some arbitrary, momentarily popular PC BS category.

      Except that there are whole classes of FB profiles out there that do not have real names attached to them and were not targeted .. EG Profiles named for/after pets.

      This is not a case of PC gone wild, but genuine discrimination.

      • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 ) on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:35AM (#48045747) Journal

        Profiles for pets, WTF? Can teddy bears have profiles too? Are the pets allowed to have political opinions?

        Why are facebook apologising to all LGBTs and not just Drag Queens? Why do drag queens get to have an alias and not straight people who wear straight peoples clothes. If women wear trousers do they get to call themselves cross-dressers and get an alias? If the pet cross-dresses can it have an alias?

        This is all fucking insane.

        • by pla ( 258480 )
          Profiles for pets, WTF? Can teddy bears have profiles too? Are the pets allowed to have political opinions?

          "My" Facebook page exists solely for my pets. And yes, they have political opinions (they favor absolute monarchy justified by the doctrine of the Divine Right of Cats).

          See, I have zero interest in what my 6000 closest "friends" do. I have zero interest in sharing details of the texture of my morning bowel movement with half the planet (or even just with those 6000 "friends"). I have zero inter
          • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

            Thankfully there has not been anything exclusive to Facebook important enough to make me want to join up.

        • by rwise2112 ( 648849 ) on Thursday October 02, 2014 @08:40AM (#48046169)

          Profiles for pets, WTF? Can teddy bears have profiles too? Are the pets allowed to have political opinions?

          Why are facebook apologising to all LGBTs and not just Drag Queens? Why do drag queens get to have an alias and not straight people who wear straight peoples clothes. If women wear trousers do they get to call themselves cross-dressers and get an alias? If the pet cross-dresses can it have an alias?

          This is all fucking insane.

          Well what about writers with pen names? Musicians and actors with stage names?

          Sting has a facebook page. His real name is not Sting, so why should he have special privileges?

        • by Velex ( 120469 ) on Thursday October 02, 2014 @09:38AM (#48046625) Journal

          Ah, it's been a while, Green Site!

          Why are facebook apologising to all LGBTs and not just Drag Queens?

          Ok, there's a great deal of confusion I see here. It's a question of use-case.

          Drag queens are performing artists. See Rue Paul or Pandora Boxx, neither of which iirc use HRT or intend to transition to adopting their performing identities as their own 24/7. Companies get FB pages, so why shouldn't their performing identities get FB pages in addition to their own personal pages?

          I find it odd that FB is apologizing to drag queens or that they would even target drag queens. (I'd also like to add that one curious thing I read in Whipping Girl is that drag queens are often welcomed into the female restroom, but trans women are shunned from that place.)

          In the case of trans men and women, if FB has targeted them (I haven't been), FB is clearly wrong and the apology is justified. Especially in the case of trans women, proceeding with a legal name change is a risk that can land one homeless in a gutter. I'd also like to add that in my personal experience that I'm gendered female by others quite often (just lucky I guess), however changing my real name without being able to go without a job for a year or two would be suicidal. Employers have this little habit of demanding documents that contain one's legal gender. If one's legal gender doesn't match with the gender of one's identity and the gender others assign to one, it's OMG fucking holy shit GTFO.

          There's also the complication that a name change is not enough to get those documents to match one's lived gender. My state requires bottom surgery before the documents can be amended, although some clever trans women are able to get the gender on their driver's license changed at the DMV with a little social engineering (others aren't so lucky). Other states make it impossible to change those documents even with bottom surgery.

          My friends know me by one name. My employer and clients know me by another. However, FB is not a network for professionals so instead I have a LinkedIn profile with one name and a FB profile I haven't touched in probably two years with another name (just a few more years and it'll be my real name), the one my friends know me as.

          Why do drag queens get to have an alias and not straight people who wear straight peoples clothes.

          What is straight peoples' clothes, exactly? Do homosexuals wear something different to the office? In my experience, gays and lesbians tend to dress just the same as their heterosexual peers.

          Yes, I'm intentionally being obtuse. I hope I addressed the confusion about drag above. This is a question of identity.

          I'd also like to give you something to think about. Currently I'm between genders, so it's all wibbly-wobbly. However, should I obtain bottom surgery after going full time as a woman, I will then be a heterosexual woman and indistinguishable from any other straight woman who cannot have children due to whatever medical problem.

          Your head will asplode the day the procedure for a barren cisgendered woman to receive a transplanted uterus (I'm too lazy to find the link, but I believe the procedure involved transplanting her mother's uterus into her so that she could have children) is expanded to transgendered women.

          If women wear trousers do they get to call themselves cross-dressers and get an alias?

          Why would a cisgendered woman want to have a male identity? If this is a case of a trans man or somebody experimenting with presenting a male identity, then I would say it's justified.

          I've met a few trans men, and the decision to undergo gender transition is an even bigger hurdle for them than trans women. There is no bottom surgery they can hope for, and they have to be absolutely certain before they expose their bodies to testosterone. Estrogen is easy, and its changes to the body can be hidden or even reversed. That's

          • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

            You know my post was mostly tongue-in-cheek, truth is I don't have a Facebook account because I think Facebook stinks like Google and google+ stink. The "real" name policy is not to prevent bullying, it is to increase advertising/data mining revenues.

            The whole issue with employers seeing an employees Facebook profile just shows what a mess the maze of privacy settings are. Employers should not be able to stalk employees anyway, but good luck stopping them without technical means, means like aliases!

            Now, I'm

    • I see no reason why any person with a private Facebook page should be given special status or exemptions from the rules just because of some arbitrary, momentarily popular PC BS category.

      "Momentarily popular?" Are you joking? Men dressing as women has been part of the theatre since... since there was a theatre. Drag is a performance art, dude, and just because you don't personally like or approve of it doesn't delegitimize it as an art form, or magically erase the real physical danger drag queens in certain intolerant societies actually face.

    • Meanwhile, back at the ranch, people of common sense have NEVER signed up with Facebook using a real goddam name.

      How fucking dumb can one human be?

    • Because Its facebook's system, they can decide and enforce their rules as they see fit. Discrimination is a fact of life, and a good thing in many cases [Facebook discriminates against those under the age of 13! The Horror!!]. Weather or not you like a particular discrimination, is your viewpoint.

      • Weather or not you like a particular discrimination, is your viewpoint.

        It's not like choosing a football team to support, you know.

    • Don't forget that the rule itself is some arbitrary thing made up by Facebook. It's their rule and they can define and enforce it any way they want (as long as they don't violate anybody's civil rights).

      I suspect they will change the enforcement of the rule so that only people trying to cause somebody else grief will be punished.

    • Did Facebook ask YOU to prove your identity when you created an account? Would you send them a photo of your drivers license, bank statement, or whatever just to create an account? Did slashdot ask you to prove who you are, Mr Anonymous Coward?

      It's not reverse discrimination - only people who other people wanted to "out" (in this case, one individual reported the 200 cases in question) are suddenly under undue scrutiny, based on their gender expression. That's not reverse discrimination - that's discrim

  • Why only LGBT? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rob Kaper ( 5960 ) on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:29AM (#48045717) Homepage

    Why would LGBT members require more of an apology than heterosexual cisgenders who desire to use another name?

    • Re:Why only LGBT? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by PeeAitchPee ( 712652 ) on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:42AM (#48045785)
      Orwell said it best: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
    • You might try asking that question to Marshall Mathers [facebook.com].

    • Could just be an oversight.
      I support anyone's right to self identify gender, dress as they want,engage in consensual activities with anyone they want, If I'm missing something on this list I likely support that as well. But - I don't actually know the correct all-inclusive term to use and had though that LGBT covered everything.

    • I have 17 Facebook accounts and I never use my real name. I don't have to. I challenge anyone to provide a citation.

      All the bastards can do (and have done) is block an account.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:32AM (#48045739)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Re:Ok (Score:4, Funny)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:48AM (#48045815)

      So if Fred Phelps had gone around calling himself God's Fag Killing Machine

      Well I always did think Fred Phelps was a pseudonym.

    • Facebook's most practical approach would be to punt to the courts. Would the courts allow "God's Fag Killing Machine" as a name change? That kid who was taken away from his parents for being named "Adolph Hitler [smith-or-whatever]" will be old enough to sign up for a Facebook account in a few years.

      The bind they're in is that by not adhering to the legal regime, they're having to make judgment calls - so far they can sit on their terms of service and tell those who are offended by everything to take a wa

      • Facebook's best practical approach would be to stop taking themselves seriously.

        Facebook is not a government authority like the freaking IRS or anything.

        It's a goddam social network where people post pictures of their Starbucks coffee cup.

        Facebook's goal is to have all members be "real," so they can tell the advertisers that.

        The advertisers get really pissed when Facebook over-reports the "realness" of their membership.

  • by rmdingler ( 1955220 ) on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:40AM (#48045771) Journal
    Heaven forbid a publicly traded company or individual should make a social faux paus that bucks conventional political correctness.

    Alternative lifestyles are free to be offensive to some niches of society. Thus, neither are you, Lil Miss Hot Mess, guaranteed the right not to be offended.

    Being driven by ratings based on the viewing habits of folks who have checked out, the fourth estate is there in force to address every imaginable social injustice.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Newsflash: Drag queens, drag kings, and other people in the LGBT community can often go by pseudonyms because they might happen to live with a family that would put them out on the street if they found out. Drag queens, drag kings, and especially transgendered people are subject to not just that, but downright assault as a result of their lifestyle. This isn't about people being offended, this is about the fact that Facebook's policy could cause actual, physical harm to people. Fuck you, you ignorant fuckst

    • by mvdwege ( 243851 )

      conventional political correctness.

      Otherwise known as being considerate and polite. Old-fashioned, I know.

      • political correctness has nothing to do with being considerate or polite. In factI see it as the exact opposite. Political correctness is a way of thought control on the population. OH you say THAT!!! no, its not THAT anymore, its offensive. now we call them sea kittens and if you dont you are a bad person. Political correctness is the single worst thing to happen to america
    • by hink ( 89192 )
      Odd how people who aren't in the affected group always call it "political correctness", and the people who are in the affected group call it "politeness" or "considerate".

      How exactly does this change in policy hurt your tender feelings?
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

      She didn't demand the "right" not to be offended, she just said she was offended and Facebook decided to do something about it because they realized they had made a mistake.

      Honestly, stop trying to be a victim here. There is no political correctness, no agenda, no-one is out to take away your rights. It's just a normal complaint about something Facebook probably never intended in the first place and was happy to fix.

  • by briancox2 ( 2417470 ) on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:46AM (#48045799) Homepage Journal
    OK Facebook. Now apologize to all of the affected whistle-blowers that can't openly protest and embarrass you into action.
  • I guess they think my account "bob disembodied brain" is a real person.
  • by ugen ( 93902 ) on Thursday October 02, 2014 @09:00AM (#48046323)

    The so-called "apology" is in itself offensive and patronizing. "Drag queens" to LGBT is what "Exotic dancers" are to being a straight woman (or a man, I suppose). The choice of names they used in the example is also not coincidental.

    I wonder if reaction would have been different were facebook to require all married women to use their husbands name (Mrs Robinson), and then apologized by way by letting them keep their "Lil Miss Makemeasammich" monikers.

    It's only "PC bullshit" until it's your problem.

  • I'm a lesbian, trapped in the body of a man.

    • by geekoid ( 135745 )

      The undergo the procedure to become a woman.

      Whats that, you're a man who like a women? You don't know what lesbian means, do you?

      Oh, you were being 'funny'. It's ok I remember when I was in 6th grade.

  • by cout ( 4249 ) <curlypaul924&gmail,com> on Thursday October 02, 2014 @09:28AM (#48046527) Homepage

    Teachers and counsellors often don't want the kids they work with to be able to easily find them on facebook, so they use fake names. I have many friends who do this. So far they haven't been affected by any rule enforcement.

    • Teachers and counsellors often don't want the kids they work with to be able to easily find them on facebook, so they use fake names. I have many friends who do this. So far they haven't been affected by any rule enforcement.

      Well, that's one solution. Another is for them to use their real name on Facebook and a fake name in class... some hilarious options come to mind.

    • by geekoid ( 135745 )

      Yes, but there livelhood won't be impacted of there accounts are closed, unlike profession entertainers who don't want that chance. These specific entertainer have a grope of people who are ALWAYS trying to cause them problems, so getting reported to facebook is much more likely.

  • Maybe its because I have been in online forums since I was a teenager, but, as far as I am concerned your "real name" is exactly whatever you say it is, and, you can have as many real names as you want, because your real name is whatever you accept that people call you. Period. That is as much realness to your name as I recognize.

    You tell me your name is voltron. Your name *IS* voltron as far as I am concerned. your real one.

  • Kind of hard to believe Facebook really is trying to protect the integrity and reputability of its users, and applying rules to people equally. Mark Zuckerberg's dog has a fucking account -- tell me how that's ok?

"Here comes Mr. Bill's dog." -- Narrator, Saturday Night Live

Working...