Facebook officials announced Oct. 1 that they're working to fix the "real-name" policy that raised concerns among trans individuals, drag queens and other members of the LGBT community.
Facebook Chief Products Officer Chris Cox apologized to LGBT community members the policy adversely affected.
"In the two weeks since the real-name policy issues surfaced, we've had the chance to hear from many of you in these communities and understand the policy more clearly as you experience it," Cox wrote. "We've also come to understand how painful this has been. We owe you a better service and a better experience using Facebook, and we're going to fix the way this policy gets handled so everyone affected here can go back to using Facebook as you were."
Cox said that a Facebook user had reported several hundred accounts as being fakes, adding, "These reports were among the several hundred thousand fake name reports we process every single week, 99 percent of which are bad actors doing bad things: impersonation, bullying, trolling, domestic violence, scams, hate speech, and moreso we didn't notice the pattern."
Owners of suspected fake accounts are asked to verify their identities by submitting some form of identification, a practice Cox defended, saying it protected Facebook from users hiding behind pseudonyms to harass and bully other users. But he promised that flagged accounts would be managed in "a less abrupt and more thoughtful" manner.
"Our policy has never been to require everyone on Facebook to use their legal name," Cox noted. "The spirit of our policy is that everyone on Facebook uses the authentic name they use in real life. For Sister Roma, that's Sister Roma. For Lil Miss Hot Mess, that's Lil Miss Hot Mess. Part of what's been so difficult about this conversation is that we support both of these individuals, and so many others affected by this, completely and utterly in how they use Facebook."