







And it doesn't pop up a box every time asking you to use your real name. In fact, there's no way to set your name at all. You just have to keep reminding people who you are.
Real-Name Policies: The War Against Pseudonymity
Real-name policies have existed for over a decade, but these problems have become exponentially harmful in today's world. It's time to fight back against this unsafe and discriminatory privacy-invasive practice.

Why does Google+ insist on having your real name?
Google+ is the latest social network to demand people's real names. But why do they need them?

The Right to Anonymity is Vital to Free Expression: Now and Always
“There are myriad reasons why individuals may wish to use a name other than the one they were born with. They may be concerned about threats to their lives or livelihoods, or they may risk political

Anonymity, pseudonymity, and the agency of online identity: Examining the social practices of r/Gonewild
A debate is currently raging regarding the value of anonymity online. On one side of the debate is Facebook, the world’s largest social network site. Facebook demands that people use their real names and is one of the leading forces behind the push towards a “real name” Internet. On the other side of the debate are scholars such as danah boyd and Bernie Hogan and sites such as 4chan and Reddit that view anonymity and pseudonymity as important to how people construct identity online. While much has been written about the benefits of anonymity and pseudonymity, there is a lack of published research examining specific practices enabled by pseudonyms. This paper provides a detailed account of the behaviors enabled through pseudonymous identity construction through a case study of the subreddit r/gonewild. The main contribution of the article is to provide a specific account of the costs of a totalizing embrace of the “real name” Internet.
Anonymity, pseudonymity, and the agency of online identity: Examining the social practices of r/Gonewild
A debate is currently raging regarding the value of anonymity online. On one side of the debate is Facebook, the world’s largest social network site. Facebook demands that people use their real names and is one of the leading forces behind the push towards a “real name” Internet. On the other side of the debate are scholars such as danah boyd and Bernie Hogan and sites such as 4chan and Reddit that view anonymity and pseudonymity as important to how people construct identity online. While much has been written about the benefits of anonymity and pseudonymity, there is a lack of published research examining specific practices enabled by pseudonyms. This paper provides a detailed account of the behaviors enabled through pseudonymous identity construction through a case study of the subreddit r/gonewild. The main contribution of the article is to provide a specific account of the costs of a totalizing embrace of the “real name” Internet.
Your identity isn't your username
Your handle is a label; your identity is a key you own. atproto splits who you are from what you're called, so you can rename freely, prove who you are with a domain you control, and carry one identity across the apps you use. Part of 'Apps as Views, Not Vaults': the things you make are yours; apps are just the viewers.

Katika Kühnreich (@Katika@chaos.social)
@BerserkEd_PT@masto.pt @_elena@mastodon.social @aral@mastodon.ar.al One #problem with #realnameregistration is that it can be used as an #ID for governmental services as well That is what you could call a #thecirclescenario Another problem is the #superapp In #China it became nearly impossible to exist without the #微信 #app , known as #WeChat internationally If you analyse what #AnnaZeiter said in interviews there are possibilities they want #WSocial to become a #superapp I'll write it in more detail, in the future, I promise…
Internet Handle
Every time you sign up for a new social app, you have to rush to claim your username. If someone else got there first, too bad. And that username only works on that one app anyway.
Internet Handle
Every time you sign up for a new social app, you have to rush to claim your username. If someone else got there first, too bad. And that username only works on that one app anyway.
Katika Kühnreich (@Katika@chaos.social)
Attached: 1 image #SocialMedia of #realnameregistration , oh sorry, they call it real #humans , that advertises with " #AI " #slop #wsocial is more than problematic And already has #bots crawling it's #network Now they show that they are problematic concerning #aesthetics as well & advertise with tasteless #aislop @bildoperationen@tldr.nettime.org #realnameregistration is highly dangerous & if the company that wants to have your most private data can't save there net from bots they're not very trustworthy, are they? #tech

Real Names and Responsible Speech: The Cases of South Korea, China, and Facebook — Yale Journal of International Affairs
By David Caragliano Human psychology and market incentives make real name registration an unpalatable proposition both to netizens and to online service providers charged with implementing the policy. In time, this article argues, internet policy makers will conclude that real nam

Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names | Kalzumeus Software
Classic essay about how software routinely bumbles human names.
Petnames: A humane approach to secure, decentralized naming
Names must be human-readable in order to be widely used. Unfortunately, while DIDs and Tor .onion addresses are decentralized and globally unique, they are not human readable. How can we build user interfaces that real users might actually use? In this paper we provide an overview of petname systems, a way of mapping human readable names to cryptographically secure names, and describe changes to two user interface designs that we believe that are compatible with intuitive user expectations. We first discuss the smartphone contact list as already approximating petnames to some degree and discuss how to augment it with secure introduction. We then walk through several changes to browsers (which may be provided natively or as an extension) which add the functionality of a petname system. By utilizing petname systems we are able to collectively support individual naming definitions, community curated directories of names, as well as existing naming authorities such as certificate authorities and the domain name system, government agencies such as trademark offices, and decentralized systems such as Namecoin.
Name Checker - Social Media Username Checker
Check the availability of your desired Brand Name through our social media username checker (name checker). Claim your online identity across Social Media!
