Facebook is addressing years of complaints about its rule that people must use their real names on the site by creating a process for people who want to protect their privacy rights using nicknames.

The social network is not outright removing its ban on fake names, however, leading to skepticism from some that the updated process won't make it easier for them to keep their private and professional lives separate online.

Facebook's Vice President of Global Operations Justin Osofsky announced in a blog post that the site is testing a process that allows people to explain why they want to use a nickname, including in cases where using their legal name could make them targets of abuse or discrimination. When requests are made to ban an account with a fake name, users will now be asked to give more detail about why the site should close the account, explained Osofsky.

"Facebook is a place where people share and connect with their family and friends," Osofsky wrote in the post, which was coauthored by Product Manager Todd Gage. "In order for this to happen, people need to feel safe and be confident they know who they are communicating with."

Facebook's terms of service states that people risk deactivation of their account by not registering with "the name they use in real life." People using pseudonyms need to get permission from site to create a new account, sometimes after submitting documents and identification to the company proving that they go by an alternate name in their private life.

"We're firmly committed to this policy, and it is not changing," they write. "However, after hearing feedback from our community, we recognize that it's also important that this policy works for everyone, especially for communities who are marginalized or face discrimination."

This announcement is the latest of several adjustments made by the site during the past year, including giving people more time to verify their name before their account is shut down. The social network will make more updates to the account name process in 2016 to make it "more compassionate and easier to navigate," Osofsky said.

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This threat of deactivation has been a problem for free speech activists in repressive regimes including Egypt, who have had their accounts shut down when they used nicknames on Facebook to avoid reprisals from the government. Others, including some in the LGBT community, use nicknames to speak freely online without having their co-workers or potential stalkers link their social lives with their work lives.

Gaining legitimacy for an account name is particularly difficult for a transgender person if they have recently transitioned to a new name without legal documents to legitimize their new identity, says Jay Brown, director of research and public education at the Human Rights Campaign.

"When you think about a 15-year-old who may be transitioning [to a new sexuality or gender] Facebook is an enormous platform for them to be seen authentically; for them to be who are they really are," he says.

Brown praised the social network's announcement as a good first step, but added "we have a lot more work to do."

"Facebook has expressed commitment and we will work with them to make sure the site is a safe space for everyone," he says.

People using alternate names on the site include drag queens, sex workers or performers who self-identify by their "stage names" more often than their legal names, explains Bella La Blanc, a burlesque and sideshow performer. La Blanc says the "Facebook name police," shut down her account and restored it only after she mailed the company photos of mail, identification badges from her tours and other promotional material proving that La Blanc is her professional stage name.

"I sent Facebook a letter telling them that I use my stage name to protect the privacy of myself and my family," she says. "I have two separate lives: I am a full-time wife and mother of two children and a part-time teacher. I don't hide that I'm married, but it's not everybody's business for people to know who my kids are."

Cherie Sweetbottom, another burlesque performer who tours using that name, had her Facebook account shut down and her ability to use that name online has not been restored. Sweetbottom is skeptical that the newly announced process will make things easier for people who want to use a different identity to communicate online for safety or professional reasons.