The Kiel, north Germany-based Unabhaengiges Landeszentrum fuer Datenschutz (ULD) data protection agency has recently ordered social network Facebook to change its real name policy.

Asking Facebook to end its long-standing policy on real names, the ULD - an independent privacy protection agency - has issued a decree which demands that the social network should, with immediate effect, allow users to use fake names.

According to the argument put forth by the ULD with regard to the order to Facebook for ending its real name policy, the ULD said that the policy followed by the social network contravenes the German legislation that gives people the right to use pseudonyms online.

Noting that it was quite a "reasonable" demand to ask for the use of pseudonyms on Facebook, Thilo Weichert - head of ULD's regional office in Schleswig Holstein - said that, if the social network ends its real name policy, users will be able to use the service "without fear of unpleasant consequences."

Weichert also added that Facebook's real name policy has not been effective in either preventing the abuse of the social network for insults and provocations, or in preventing identity thefts.

Further pointing out that German law safeguards the citizens' fundamental right to freedom of expression on the Internet, Weichert said: "It is unacceptable that a US portal like Facebook violates German data protection law unopposed and with no prospect of an end."