Rethinking Fake Profiles: A Framework for Authentic User Engagement in Digital Spaces

This project was partially inspired by the trend of creating Facebook pages for pets in the 2010s.

On social media platforms that discourage anonymity (for example, Facebook and LinkedIn), the rush to eliminate fake profiles largely stems from concerns over scamming, bots, and harassment. However, the practice also undermines a potentially valuable source of authentic user data. Through ethnographic research examining what I call façade profiles—intentionally misleading accounts that users create to experiment with identity and evade surveillance—I've developed a framework that challenges conventional thinking about online authenticity and user engagement.

The Authenticity Paradox in Digital Engagement

My research revealed a counterintuitive finding: users operating behind façade profiles often report feeling "more themselves" than when posting under their real names. This paradox arises from what I term the Call to Authenticity—the platform's demand for users to share increasingly personal data in order to appear "real." While platforms benefit from this data collection for targeted advertising and user profiling, it creates a surveillance environment that actually inhibits genuine self-expression.

Through in-depth ethnographic interviews with façade profile operators, I documented how users navigate this tension by creating alternative personas that allow them to:

• Express thoughts they wouldn't share under their real identity due to professional or social constraints

• Experiment with different aspects of their personality without fear of judgment

• Resist corporate data harvesting while maintaining social connections

• Navigate what scholars call "social convergence"—when family, colleagues, and friends occupy the same digital space

A Three-Tier Framework for Understanding User Engagement

My analysis revealed three distinct levels of user authenticity in digital spaces:

• Level 1: Performative Compliance - Users who post according to platform expectations and social pressures, resulting in sanitized but commercially valuable data.

• Level 2: Strategic Façade - Users who employ alternative personas to express authentic thoughts while protecting their real-world identity, generating genuine but misdirected data.

• Level 3: Authentic Multiplicity - Users who recognize that identity is naturally multifaceted and use digital tools to express different aspects of themselves across several accounts.

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This framework, developed through comparative case study analysis of multiple façade profiles, demonstrates that authentic user engagement requires privacy and anonymity—elements that current platform policies systematically eliminate.

Implications for Platform Design and Content Strategy

The findings suggest that platforms focusing too much on verified identity may be creating environments that discourage the authenticity they claim to promote. Rather than viewing façade profiles as problems to be solved, organizations should consider them as:

• Behavioral indicators of user needs for privacy and self-expression

• Sources of genuine sentiment data that bypass social desirability bias

• Models for designing more inclusive engagement strategies

However, this approach requires careful consideration of potential risks. My research identified legitimate concerns about façade profiles enabling harassment, stalking, and other harmful behaviors. Any framework for leveraging anonymous or pseudonymous engagement must include robust mechanisms for preventing abuse while preserving the benefits of identity flexibility.

A Balanced Approach to Digital Identity

The key insight from this work is that authentic user engagement isn't about forcing transparency—it's about creating conditions where users feel safe to express themselves genuinely. This requires acknowledging that:

• Identity is naturally multifaceted, not fixed

• Privacy enables rather than hinders authentic expression

• Users are strategic actors who will find ways to meet their needs, whether platforms support them or not

• The most valuable user insights often come from spaces where social surveillance is reduced

Organizations serious about understanding their users should reconsider blanket policies against alternative profiles. Instead, they might develop more nuanced approaches that distinguish between malicious bot activity and genuine human expression behind protective personas.

The research methodology combined ethnographic interviewing techniques with digital data analysis and participant observation, providing a holistic view of how users actually behave versus how platforms assume they behave. This mixed-methods approach revealed the gap between platform design intentions and user experience realities—a gap that represents both a challenge and an opportunity for more effective digital engagement strategies.

By understanding the authentic motivations behind seemingly "inauthentic" behavior, organizations can design better user experiences while respecting the fundamental human need for both connection and privacy in digital spaces.