Home Facebook Is Reportedly Working On A Secret Clone

Facebook Is Reportedly Working On A Secret Clone

Facebook may be sticking to its guns on its controversial “real names” policy that says people need to use their real identities when using the service, but it’s apparently not ruling out anonymity altogether. The company is creating a new app that will let people communicate anonymously with one another, according to a report from the New York Times

The social network prides itself on being central to identity on the Internet—outside applications even rely on it to confirm that users are who they say they are. Of course, not everyone abides by those rules; people regularly use fake or pseudonymous names on the service, and unless they’ve been reported, Facebook won’t necessarily know about them.

Facebook, however, is apparently experimenting with a new application that would mimic others like Secret and Whisper, which let people post anonymous words and photos to mobile apps for other people to see.

According to the Times:

[The point of the app] is to allow Facebook users to use multiple pseudonyms to openly discuss the different things they talk about on the Internet; topics of discussion which they may not be comfortable connecting to their real names.

Facebook recently announced Anonymous Login, a way for people to connect to apps without sharing their Facebook information with them. However, even though these apps can’t access a user’s Facebook data, Facebook will knows which apps people are using anonymously. It’s not yet clear how Facebook will connect with an anonymous app of its own, and whether it will collect data on users.

See also: Can Anyone Remember Facebook’s Last Original Idea?

With Facebook’s track record of controversial privacy policies, the real question is whether people trust their secrets and anonymous posts to Facebook, especially since the company has prided itself on being a place for people to share and communicate by using their true identities. 

There are some things people don’t want even their friends to know.

(Failed) Attack Of The Clones

Considering Facebook’s streak of failure when trying to emulate other applications, a Whisper clone might not be a huge success. But it does suggest the social network realizes people don’t always want to be tied to their real names online.

Facebook is quick to jump on trends that it doesn’t have its hands in yet. It’s copied numerous features from Twitter, tried multiple times to clone Snapchat, and duplicated newsreaders like Flipboard when it launched Paper earlier this year. None of these clones appear to have taken off.

While Facebook might want people to share their dirty little secrets on an application that supposedly isn’t tied to their identity, people probably don’t want to ditch the apps they’re already using in favor of Facebook’s, which arrived at the party a little too late.

Facebook’s Secret or Whisper copycat would effectively be the anti-Facebook—no names, no identity, and no way of knowing who posts what. That could make it a Facebook users might like, though maybe not trust, a little bit more.

Lead image by Amnesty International UK

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