Can I Make an Anonymous Facebook Account?

Facebook’s Terms of Use require you to give your real name, although shortened versions of your real name are permissible. The use of a fake name could result in the suspension of your profile until your real name is provided. It is also against Facebook policy to create more than one personal account. If your account is disabled, you must submit an appeal to Facebook to get the account reinstated.

While you cannot hide your identity by using a fake name, you can conceal your presence on Facebook by hiding your profile from public search engines. This prevents your content or profile from appearing in search results. Unfortunately there is no way for you to avoid being searchable from Facebook’s own internal search, but there are further steps that can be taken to conceal your identity.

Facebook allows users to control who can view content by offering various visibility settings, each with a higher degree of privacy. From the most visible to the most private they are: “Public,” “Friends,” “Friends Except Acquaintances,” and “Only Me.” The Public setting will allow your content to be seen by any Facebook user, while the Friends setting will limit those posts to just those you have accepted friend requests from. Friends Except Acquaintances will allow you to show your posts to only certain friends, while Only Me makes your posts only viewable to you.

Labeling friends as “Acquaintances” allows you to use the Friends Except Acquaintances privacy setting effectively. This is useful when you wish to hide certain content from people that you may not fully trust or don’t know very well. Facebook also has a Custom setting, which will allow you to set up a custom group of friends that you’d like to see certain posts (see links in Resources).