Facebook can nix German users with fake names - CNET

The beauty of the Inteet is that when you're online you can be anybody you want. Except on Facebook, where you have to be yourself.

Facebook users in Germany can be forced by the social network to go by their real names, a court ruled on Thursday.

The decision, reported by Reuters, is a success for the social network, which has struggled to implement its real-names policy in the Germany. The court ruled against a previous decision by the Hamburg data protection authority, the watchdog that polices Facebook in Germany, which said the social network could not force users to comply with its real name policy if they didn't want to.

Facebook asks users to register with their real names because it is a place where "people use their authentic identities" and because it keeps users "safe." The majority of users happily use Facebook under their real names, but some users are negatively impacted by the policy. The site has not always made provisions for countries or communities that have unusual naming conventions, and has sometimes deactivated the accounts of users who have seemingly implausible names.

In December 2015, the company issued an apology to members of the LGBT community and abuse victims who had been negatively affected by the policy. It is currently developing special provisions for people in unique circumstances to use pseudonyms subject to identity verification.