It's definitely true that part of the reason Google+ dropped its real names policy was internal employee activism, alongside external pressure. Unfortunately,

It's definitely true that part of the reason Google+ dropped its real names policy was internal employee activism, alongside external pressure. Unfortunately, that reversal and Facebook's more weakly enforced continuation of the same old type of policy both went mostly unnoticed. (Yes, I realize G+ is going away for consumer accounts in August. This change was years ago.)