Facebook To Modify ‘Real Name’ Policy After LGBT, Native American Activist Groups Protest Trolls Targeting Users With Known Identities

Social networking giant Facebook, on Friday, said that it is testing ways to improve it's "real names" policy after it was heavily criticized by several activist groups.

Facebook's "real name" policy demands users to use their real names on the social network rather than a pseudonym. LGBT, native Americans and several other communities have repeatedly protested the policy as they feared the policy lead to online bullying and harassment.

The announcement was made in response to an open letter written by advocacy groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

In a published letter obtained by BuzzFeed, Facebook's vice president of growth, Alex Schultz, said the company is in the process of adding new tools that would improve the method users use to confirm their names while signing up on the social network and make it difficult for trolls to target individuals, , reported Venture Beat.

According to Schultz, Facebook would work to reduce the number of people who are asked to verify their names when they are already using the name people know them by. Furthermore, the company would make it easier for people to confirm their name if necessary.

The site would require users, who flag others for using alternate names, to offer additional detail in their complaint. Also, the social network would no longer require government IDs to verify user's identity.

The changes are scheduled to begin rolling out in December.

"These improvements will take some time to test and implement, but a team is working on this and people should start seeing the tests in December," noted Schultz.

 "Between now and then, we will be gathering additional feedback from the community to make sure we are on the right track. Once the changes are rolled out, we will learn how people use them and continue to make further improvements."

Last year, Facebook's Chris Cox had apologized all affected users for suspending their accounts after an individual reported hundreds of those accounts as fake.