Aadhaar card required to create Facebook account?

Facebook is one of the largest social networking platforms globally, with over 201 million active users in India. Facebook India is asking new users to register their first and last names based on their Aadhaar card. It is to ensure that the people can use the names they are known by on Facebook so that they can easily connect with their friends and families.

The development was confirmed to the indianexpress.com by a Facebook spokesperson, entering the same name as that on Aadhaar is not compulsory and users can choose to ignore the prompt if they are not interested. This was first noticed by a user on Reditt , and screenshot also posted which states “Using the name on your Aadhaar card makes it easier for friends to recognise you.” It seems the feature is avaialble only for the new users and not for the existing users. Facebook India is requesting only the First name and Last name.

“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,” the statement from Facebook read.