Facebook is planning to launch a new anonymous chat app.
Despite recently coming under fire for its policy of forcing users to use their real names, it is expected to launch the standalone app within weeks. It will allow users to interact without revealing their real names.
The stand-alone application would allow users to interact inside of it without having to use their real names, according to two people briefed on Facebook’s plans found by the New York Times.
However, it was unclear exactly how it would work. Facebook has pushed its site as a way to prove and establish your online identity, and to map out the connections you have to other friends and family, both on and offline.
Facebook has long required its users to go by their ‘real names’ on the site for security purposes, to stand out from other social networks and so it can better target advertising to people.
Now, the company says the spirit of its policy doesn’t mean a person’s legal name but ‘the authentic name they use in real life.’ Though the real names policy isn’t changing, the way Facebook enforces it might.
