Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Hey, Facebook: Scrap the Real-Name Rule

Germany is right to push back against a misguided policy.

July 29, 2015 at 6:00 AM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Ellen Pao tried to fight anonymity and lost.
Photographer: Michael Short/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Hamburg data protection supervisor Johannes Caspar is after Facebook again: He wants it to scrap its real-name-only policy. His demand provides an interesting perspective on Ellen Pao's battle with anonymous trolls on Reddit and her subsequent dismissal as interim chief executive officer of the online platform.

Each of Germany's 16 federal states has an official who, like Caspar, is charged with making sure local companies and government bodies follow data privacy laws. In 2013, Caspar forced Google to disclose the kinds of personal data it was collecting in the city of Hamburg, and fined the company $189,225 -- not much for the search company but close to the maximum allowed by German law. His findings, however, did more damage to Google than the paltry fine, triggering investigations in other countries.