Facebook is all about connecting with friends from your every day life. The social network even has a policies in place to curb the use of fictitious names (though it doesn’t do a whole lot to prevent users from using fake names anyway). It’s unlikely Facebook will ever be pro-alias, but rumour has it the company has an app in the works that would allow users to communicate anonymously using pseudonyms.
According to the New York Times, the folks at Facebook have been working on this application for a year and are being led by Josh Miller, a product manager that joined Facebook acquired his company back in January of this year. Formerly Roundtable, Miller’s company is/was called Branch and allows users to create online conversations based around a given topic. Others can be added to that conversation via Twitter or email.
The information provided by the New York Times (and the fact that Branch is still up and running) indicates that this upcoming Facebook app will be quite different. The Times cites people briefed on Facebook’s plans that say the app is supposed to allow Facebook users the ability to discuss topics they may not be comfortable discussing with their real name attached. What’s not clear is if you’ll have to sign into this app using your Facebook account before going incognito or if the app will be totally separate from Facebook.
Facebook hasn’t commented on the report but rumour has it we can expect this new app to launch in the next few weeks.
[source]New York Times[/source]
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