Read on Twitter
I'm awake properly, so let's talk for a sec about why this—the White Man's Gambit—is a terrible idea. https://twitter.com/Schneider_CM/status/1349025916857569283
First, as @DiaKayyali reminded us yesterday, the real-world harm to LGBTQ+ folks around the world that policies like this pose remains very real: https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2014/09/facebooks-real-name-policy-can-cause-real-world-harm-lgbtq-community
At @EFF we've been opposed to "real names" measures forever. This is among the first pieces I wrote when I started work here a decade ago: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/07/case-pseudonyms
In 2011, we worked with a coalition to oppose Google+'s "real names" policy—and we succeeded! They removed the requirement, because they actually listened to us.
In 2015, Facebook made some changes to their policy, but we still didn't (and don't) think they're sufficient. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/changes-facebooks-real-names-policy-still-dont-fix-problem
Here's another excellent @DiaKayyali-led effort that includes loads of research citations and, as you can see, dozens of organizations speaking out in opposition to the requirement of "real names" https://www.eff.org/document/open-letter-facebook-about-its-real-names-policy
Of course, we're not the only ones. One of the best pieces of research here is by the Coral Project: https://coralproject.net/blog/the-real-name-fallacy/
