Drag queens are the latest group to target Facebook’s long-standing prohibition against using fake names on the site.

Political activists worldwide, victims of abuse, celebrities and other groups have in the past also pushed up against Facebook’s rule, which was created when the social network was hatched in a Harvard University dorm.

“This interest among some of their users to use pseudonyms is not going away,” said Emma Llanso, the director of the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Free Expression Project. “It’s really a learning opportunity for Facebook to try to talk to these communities and understand why the options it provides just aren’t satisfactory.”

But the company should tread carefully before changing its long-standing policy and allowing people to use fake names.

I worry about the perils in suddenly giving everyone on Facebook a choice about their identity.

With a billion users, Facebook has to contend with a huge trust issue. Its challenge is to reassure users that they can operate in a safe online world, where their posts are seen by those they want to see them and people are who they say they are.

This policy creates accountability for what someone posts, especially critical when it comes to issues like cyberbullying. And ideally, it makes conversations more civil. Could that civility and that sense of safety be at risk if the company offers users a way to use a fake name?

I understand that political dissidents and victims of abuse need protections. And drag queens, as well as those in the gay, lesbian and transgender communities, may have good reason not to use their real names.

But maybe Facebook is not their social network if it doesn’t offer the protection that is needed. The company has long been clear about its rule, and Twitter, Snapchat and more recently Google+ allow users to make up their names.

What is troubling is how the drag queen issue reportedly came to light, as well as Facebook’s initial response.

Nothing stops a person from signing up on Facebook using a fake name. While the company takes steps to verify identities, it’s estimated as many as 11 percent of accounts are fake.

Facebook often learns of fake names from community policing; in other words, users reporting on other users.

That appears to be what happened with the drag queens, many of whom are performers who have been on Facebook for years without consequence using their stage names.

While Facebook wouldn’t go into detail about how it learned of the fake names, some drag queens and their supporters have raised the question of whether the group has been targeted.

And Facebook didn’t do itself any favors either with its initial, ham-handed response. Once it learned of the ruse, Facebook locked some drag queens like Sister Roma out of their accounts and presented them with hard choices — use your real name or your account will be deactivated.

Facebook is entitled to enforce its rules. But it could do so with a little more sensitivity. Sister Roma, a drag queen with the performance group The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, was faced with the tough choice of using her real name or losing her Facebook account, which she has had years. She changed her identity to Michael Williams, her legal name.

Facebook said it would continue to talk to the drag queen community about its alternatives. One is to create a “Page,” Facebook’s term for a site for a brand or business, specifically for that alternative persona, the company said. Only Facebook would know the person’s true identity.

That’s a lot of trust to put in any company.

But for a service that is widely used at no cost, it isn’t a lot to ask.

Contact Michelle Quinn at 510-394-4196 and mquinn@mercurynews.com. Follow her at twitter.com/michellequinn.