Facebook wants new users to sign up with name as on Aadhaar

NEW DELHI: Some among those trying to create a new Facebook account on mobile in India are being prompted with an unusual message from the social networking giant. "Using the name on your Aadhaar card makes it easier for friends to recognise you," it says. Facebook usually has variations of a message prompting people to sign up with their real names, such as, "Using your real name makes it easier for friends to recognise you." Facebook told TOI over email that the Aadhaar message appearing for some people is a part of a "small test" and isn't mandatory.
Twitter user @digitaldutta on Tuesday posted screenshots of the new sign up message carrying a reference to Aadhaar in multiple languages. "Just what you need @facebook wants you to enter your name as exactly in your #Aadhaar card," he had tweeted. "We want to make sure people can use the names they're known by on Facebook, and can easily connect with friends and family. This is a small test where we provide additional language when people sign up for an account to say that using the name on their Aadhaar card makes it easier for friends to recognize them. This is an optional prompt which we are testing, people are not required to enter the name on their Aadhaar card," a Facebook spokesperson told TOI.
Facebook declined to answer queries regarding the possibility of Aadhaar linkage in the future, and whether users in other countries are similarly prompted to use their real names with specific reference to relevant government IDs in the region.
In 2016, then managing director of Facebook in India, Umang Bedi had told TOI that Aadhaar may present "interesting use cases" in the future. "...if a person has an identity on Facebook and has the ability to hook on to a third party framework for payments it really is a seamless transition. Today banks are allowing you to authenticate with an Aadhaar digital identity instead of an ATM pin. That is a use case of Aadhaar to remove cash. Aadhaar is just a secure identity. It's not linked. Facebook is a real identity of people.," Bedi had then told TOI. He has since left the company.