Following heavy criticism, Facebook will make changes to how it enforces "real names" starting in December. This means that you will be able to change your Facebook name to match whatever identity you want. Facebook users who want to use a name other than their legal name will be able to provide context and additional details as to why. This should help Facebook's team better understand the situation.

Some people, such as political activists, want to use Facebook to advance a public cause but they don?t want to do it using their Facebook profile. For some of these situations, Facebook's Pages product allows people to publish a Page without disclosing who the administrator is.

In addition, Facebook users who are reporting a profile name they believe to be fake will have to provide their reasoning. Facebook will build a new version of the profile reporting process that requires people to provide additional information about why they are reporting a profile.

Currently, in order to confirm your name if it?s been reported as fake, Facebook requires you to provide a checklist of documents-including forms of ID, bank statement, IRS receipts, etc.?making it nearly impossible for many to regain access to their suspended profiles.

Facebook will tweak both the name confirmation process, no longer requiring government-issued IDs, as well as provide a "more robust" and transparent appeals process for users locked out of their accounts.

Despite these changes, Facebook's "real names" policy is not going away any time soon. The social network claims that "when people use the name others know them by, they are more accountable for what they say, making it more difficult to hide behind an anonymous name to harass, bully, spam or scam someone else. "