Poll: Randi Zuckerberg: Anonymity Online 'Has To Go Away'. Opinions ?

[Gwarr]

Extract from the document which can be find full at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/27/randi-zuckerberg-anonymity-online_n_910892.html
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Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook?s marketing director, has a fix for cyberbullying: stop people from doing anything online without their names attached.

Facebook requires all members to use their real names and email addresses when joining the social network -- a policy that has been difficult at times to enforce, as the prevalence of spam accounts or profiles assigned to people?s pets suggest.

Zuckerberg, who is Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg?s sister, argued that putting an end to anonymity online could help curb bullying and harassment on the web.

?I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away,? she said during a panel discussion on social media hosted Tuesday evening by Marie Claire magazine. ?People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. ? I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel like they can say whatever they want behind closed doors.?
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Seems the CEO of Google wants this too , what's your opinion on this? In the last year we saw the damage certain groups can do under the protection of anonymity (Lulzsec , Anonymous ) , but is that an argument for making it ILLEGAL to sign under aliases? I feel this is outrageous and is a grotesque and aggressive action against FREEDOM of speech . Also , miss Zuckerberg should remember she is nothing and only became rich because of her brother .

 

[iseko]

No. Everyone has something to hide and everyone is doing something illegal. Anonymity on the internet is the same as privacy in my eyes. And I Like my privacy thank you very much!

 

[teebeeohh]

in other news: everyone now has to get their name tattooed on their forehead.
It's the same thing, just in real life.

 

[penguindogexd]

i like being unkown on the internet. it means if i kill a guy one too many times on call of duty, he wont take it out on me in real life.

 

[Colour Scientist]

I have to admit I can see where they're coming from with this. It's not really an attack on freedom of speech but there would be a lot of negatives to match the positives.

I'm kind of on the fence.

Then again, I wouldn't like it if my internet life and real life collided. I love having both totally separate (except for Facebook).

 

[Carbon Monoxide]

That is a terrible idea. I would go in to my reasoning further, but this Cracked article sums up my thoughts perfectly: http://www.cracked.com/article_18661_the-end-online-anonymity-why-will-you-be-freaking-out.html
Also, wouldn't it be incredibly hard to make the /whole/ of the internet do this? Especially if people protest against it, which I can imagine that they will.
And I don't think it will stop 'cyberbulling', as people are bullied in real life, and they're not anonymous then are they? o n o

 

[brunothepig]

The problem is they're only talking about one situation, and hoping we all forget that online anonymity might be for any number of reasons, not just to bully people. What of people who are better known under a persona, like Yahtzee or Notch? What of people who use the internet as an escape, and want their online life to remain separate? What of people who just feel safer not having their name online for all too see? Hell, I have a mate who's pretty controversial, not afraid to speak his mind, and so frequently gets abused on Facebook. But on Facebook he goes by Lucien Melverse, only his friends know who he really is.

In fact, I was reading an article today that brought up some good counter-points, except this was about Google+ having the same ideas.
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/07/should-google-force-you-to-use-your-real-name-online

 

[badgersprite]

The internet is already a pretty creepy place that leaves you vulnerable to real life stalking, home-invasions and being found by people you don't want to find you. I'm not particularly keen to make it easier for some random psychopath or robber to decide they want to track me down because, "Hey look there's some chick whose identity isn't hidden at all."

Threatening anyone's real life identity is no justification for trying to prevent cyber bullying, especially since cyber bullying has a really fucking easy solution that no one ever seems to mention. TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER.

 

[Griffolion]

I can see where she's coming from, but getting rid of something (including all it's advantages) simply to eradicate the products of it's disadvantages is not the way to go about something (see film: Equilibrium).

 

[Vakz]

I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel like they can say whatever they want behind closed doors.?

Yes, exactly! That is the whole point of it! Free speech for everyone! You can talk about anything. Personal matters that you don't dare asking your friends about. Maybe you're have a crisis with your political opinions that you want to sort out, but are afraid your friends would look down on you for them. And yes, some people will use it to be douchebags, but it's not like douchebags don't exist outside the internet.

 

[Gwarr]

Not to mention this will probably increase cyber-bullying .Example; " You have no opinion because you are fat , fatso! " or " Omg , he is gay , quick guys lets pain his house in pink" , you get the idea . It's a BAD idea , VERY BAD idea and I'm glad the escapists are with me on this one.

 

[Polarity27]

Very strongly disagree with this anti-anonymity idiocy. People who support this tend to be people with a lot of privilege, who have nothing to lose. They've never been stalked. They've never had people issue threats once they know who you are and where you live. They've never worried that an online dispute will follow them to their job. They've never had to worry that someone will see what groups you're interested in and out you as gay to your family. They've never had to choose between getting help from other rape survivors and avoiding that help because you can't do it anonymously, or needing a support group for anything else that you might not want to tell the world about. They don't have to worry that the NC-17 rated fanfic that they wrote will be shown to their employer. They don't have to worry that their real name doesn't seem to match their real gender, and that all their friends and family will know that they're trying to deal with being transgender. And a hundred more scenarios where pseudonyms and anonymity are crucial.

Pseudonymity is healing, is empowering, allows countless people to explore their identity in ways they wouldn't if they were forced to use their real name for everything. Anonymity is even more important sometimes, because status accrues to pseudonyms too-- sometimes it's necessary to speak out on something without having the bullying follow you home. The board where I spend the majority of my time is 100% anonymous, and I find it wonderful. I can have discussions where it's about the actual discussion and not about who I know and how many friends I do/don't have, it's a place where all have equal standing.

I've been on the internet since 1992, and I can tell these people that agitate for real names only that they have no idea how many lives that concept would ruin.

 

[Zantos]

I strongly support treating the internet like real life. If I wouldn't say it to someone's face I wouldn't say it over the internet. I wouldn't say completely removing anonymity is a good idea, but only to the same extent that you have it in real life. People know my real name, age, friends know my phone number, but it's not like I tell everyone my address and alarm code, online or off.

 

[Sovvolf]

Do what you like as far as anonymity goes on the internet. Personally, I've got nothing to hide really and I've got no problems with sharing my name and a bunch of other personal information with people online. However some don't, I can understand why people don't and they should be free to chose not to.

Also... please don't let this turn into another stupid anti-Facebook thread.

 

[Sampler]

ways to prevent cyber-bullying:
a) (somehow) legally force everyone using the internet to use their real name and be trackable on everything
b) if you're a victim, don't use the internet site you're being bullied on
c) if you're a site owner and don't want to lose users, have an easy to use report system which blocks users from harassing another and allow the user to put a time limited block on new connections

I can see how we can arrive at option A as B & C will never work..