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

[Azaradel]

I kinda think Randi Zuckerberg is what needs to go away...

You know what? There is a really easy way to stop cyber bullying. Stop being so fucking sensitive and pretend that every troll that goes "lol u suk bro" on YouTube is a "cyber bully". Or better yet, you can turn off the computer and not return to the internet 'til you've realized that everyone online is an asshole.

"Oooh noooo, someone is trolling me on deviantArt! Woe is me, I am being cyber bullied! Whatever shall I do?"

Why would removing online anonymity do anything to stop the "cyber bullying"? It's not like not being anonymous has ever stopped the actual fucking bullies. Anyone remember those? You know... the people we should actually be trying to put an end to, rather than wasting time on trolls that people really, really need to stop taking seriously?

Somehow, I see removing internet anonymity as potentially making this "super serial internet bullying" even worse. Because I'm pretty sure the last thing you'd want is said "omg evil super bullies" to know your home address and phone number.

*ring ring*
"Who is this?"
"lol u suk bro"
"Woe is me, I am being phone bullied!"

 

[Riobux]

I'm sorry to say, but people stay anonymous on the internet for a reason and it's not because they're all cyber-bullies. Let it be because they have a fetish they'd rather no make known to off-line people, or they have an unpopular opinion that would destroy their career (try to get a job as a politician when you've posted online about how cancer is a necessary evil, I dare you). People need to be a persona, one that is not their own, occasionally. What they don't need is to be pestered by colleagues about some obscure forum post you made a few months ago.

The most important thing here is it's not just westerners wanting to occasionally be able to call Obama a neo-Nazi that this affects. This affects homosexuals getting to grips with their sexuality with no way offline of exploring it. This affects people in countries with an oppressive regime who want to speak out to the rest of the world, or even just to fellow-light minded people, in comfort without having the police come around with battens. This affects activists who need the power of anonymity to give the appearance of a faceless mass with no distinct leader (I bet you can guess which group) to be powerful and avoid being attacked by said groups of individuals they protest against.

Quite simply, Randi Zuckerberg is an idiot who uses her knowledge of Facebook to talk about how anonymity needs to go. It's like someone who uses their knowledge and high position of an anti-depressant company to talk about how all sadness needs to be eradicated, ignoring the importance of sadness in day-to-day life.

 

[Torrasque]

Ok, I see her point, and her position is sound.
Except not really at all.
Bullying goes on in real life, and bullies are not mysterious cloaked figures, they are people with names.
So... getting rid of anonymity on the internet would not decrease cyber bullying, it would increase real bullying.
You can avoid cyber bullying pretty easily by not associating with someone, ignoring them, ignoring them, or just going to a different part of the net (cuz thats SO HARD TO DO)

If she had a different position, I might listen to her, but as is, this is a whole load of bullshit in an attempt to get more information on people.

 

[Adzma]

Stupid proposal is stupid. Could you imagine the shitstorm that would be created if all anonymity was removed from the internet? Remember what happened when Blizzard tried to remove anonymity from their forums?

 

[smithy_2045]

Anonymity is dangerous.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Erm
Surely being bullied on the internet makes it worse if they know who you are?
Not sure where he's going with that :|
It's not going to make people any less cruel believe me.

 

[Exile714]

She's trying to solve a complex problem with an overly simplistic solution.

Problem: people use anonymity to attack people without recourse on the internet.
Related problem: internet trollers and political crazies spout vile online because they have anonymity, bringing down the level of discussion in places which would otherwise prosper.

Solution: like in real life, people need to have consequences which prevent them from acting like idiots online. But this doesn't mean ending anonymity, which is actually a huge benefit in the online community. Instead, people need to have "persistent" online personae. Like the post count on this site, the more you say and do online, the more your persona "grows." The problem is that infant personae, 0-5 posts on this site, have the same privileges as mature personae.

What we really need is the ability to make personae which can be used across the internet. Facebook and Disquis are early starts, but both have some problems to overcome. In particular, Facebook ties into one's offline persona which destroys anonymity and thus is less than ideal. Disquis, on the other hand, does not create the "persistence" of a persona such that building one's reputation is necessary.

Not all sites need persistent personae, just ones where the level of discussion would be benefited by excluding trolls and their ilk.

All that aside, Facebook has a pretty effective anti-bullying feature built in. Wait for it... just remove the person from friends, and block random requests. Done. People already are not anonymous on Facebook, and people can restrict whether anonymous persons can reach them. This is not their (Facebook's) problem to address.

 

[Fugitive Panda]

That would be a real loss. Yes, anonymity may give dicks an uncontrolled environment in which to be dicks, but imagine how banal things would be if you had to attribute every damn thing you did online to yourself.

And since the internet never forgets, each and every stupid mistake you make online will be forever kept for posterity. If you once posted on a fetishist forum, I hope that doesn't bother your future employer or fiance! Ever write crappy fanfiction? Boy will that come back to haunt you if you ever try to write on a professional level. etc, etc.

The chance to express yourself without fear of repercussions is important and lends itself to so many things. In this way, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

 

[Fleischer]

Yes, anonymity may give dicks an uncontrolled environment in which to be dicks...

It certainly does. No arguing here.

...imagine how banal things would be if you had to attribute every damn thing you did online to yourself.

It would be a vast change. People would have to think long and hard before saying something that might paint them in a poor light.

And since the internet never forgets, each and every stupid mistake you make online will be forever kept for posterity. If you once posted on a fetishist forum, I hope that doesn't bother your future employer or fiance! Ever write crappy fanfiction? Boy will that come back to haunt you if you ever try to write on a professional level. etc, etc.

This is the reason why I voted "Yes, but allow certain amount of anonymity." If you want to visit a website that allows you to be less traceable, to appear anonymous, then fine. Patronize those websites, since most people - myself included, would prefer to have some privacy in part of their on-line usage.

You should have the choice to participate in parts of the Internet that are not tracked, but the default option should be tracked identity.

 

[Jordi]

Internet anonymity has a lot of good aspects, but also a lot of bad ones. Zuckerberg is thinking far too small if she's only concerned with cyberbullying. Without anonymity people would be far more polite with each other to begin with. Furthermore, internet crime would become much, much harder. Think about it: if you really can't be anonymous on the internet, how easy would it be to catch hackers? How easy would it be to catch people involved in child porn networks? It won't solve all of these things 100%, but it will make a huge difference.

And besides, 99% of what we're using our anonymity for is to be able to spout stupid bullshit that we haven't fully thought through.

On the other hand, some things would not be said, not because they're stupid, but because the people reading them may judge you for them regardless. It would be risky to admit you support a sports team, like My Little Pony, like video games, or don't like your job if your (future) employer might read it, and it might be harder to write scathing letters about shady businesses or people.
I think a lot of those things can potentially be remedied by websites themselves though. Even though The Escapist (or some kind of fetish porn site) might know who you are, they could decide/promise not to divulge that information to the outside world and allow you to create aliases. You can then choose the sites you will frequent based on the privacy options they will give you. If you want to say stuff that could potentially get in trouble, go to an anonymous site. If you want a more serious conversation with people who are accountable for their words, you go to a site with real names. And even then, those sites should decide if they want to publish the names to everyone, or just to members.

I don't know if this is the best way, but I do think some kind of middle way between what we have now and less anonymity would probably be the best.

 

[Aprilgold]

I have one simple back lash to this, murders, people NOW KNOW where you live, your name and the town, state and country you live in and on, this means that anyone could kill you for saying something online. Anonymity exists mainly and privacy, and thats one of my rights, so taking only anonymous away, is against the law. But its true, if I say I hate X thing in a very mean way, a fan could track me down and KILL ME! The reason why they shouldn't have this is because its against the law, it would cause murderer's to spring up every where. I like being anonymous on the internet because I can express myself without fear of being raped.

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.

And heres where problems set in, I have some fucked up opinions on societies kids today, I DON'T NEED 4,000 PEOPLE CALLING ME AND BITCHING AT ME, LET ALONE WALK TO MY HOUSE TO PUNCH IN THE JAW! And there ARE hackers that can get this information with anonymity, but you know, google, you can google a man, I searched myself and get my FACE BOOK PAGE, like nothing at all happened. OH look, my twitter, and then THERES MY NAME, ADRESS, PHONE AND STATE I LIVE IN RIGHT ON WHITE PAGES! So yeah, a potential rapist, murder, or someone who disagrees with my opnions can attempt to kill me, rape me, and call me rude things over the phone, realize how BAD this could get fast? Its easy to hack when you know private things about a person, especially IP and adress, along with name and e-mail, if I dominate someone on TF2, since they know my real name, they can get steam to say I changed my E-mail, and if they could change it to a newer one. There, there goes 31 games.

Heres my question since some of you guys don't get the point of easier killings. Would you want to be tracked going to the bathroom, or calling your friend, or crying because of some bad deed, imagine if all those you were being stalked, and everysingle thing you did was reported to a place where anyone could view it, it makes life harder for you now, don't it? It would lead to you lying, to you conforming, then to you lose any trace of humanity left in fear of some wack job killing you off in yoru sleep, because you did X thing and Y to for Z reason.

 

[Markgraf]

Anonymity is the best vehicle through which an honest discourse can be approached. While I agree that it also fosters perversity, I believe the pros most definitely outweigh the cons in this case.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

No.

Online is the last safe haven for anonmity and people without social order.

If you want to avoid cyber bullying, don't do anything stupid online, or shut off the computer.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Did they try something similar to this in Australia? And didn't that fail epically?

 

[Radelaide]

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.

Yeah, that's another thing. I can't muster any respect for people who see cyber-bullying as a big issue. Seriously, you get worked up by words from people you don't know? People need to learn to deal with stuff, not get shielded from it more and more as time goes on. The more you shield them, the more problematic even the smallest of problems will get.

Most of the time, it's by someone the victim knows. Blocking them doesn't help because of the way technology is advancing. Think you can ever really rid someone from your internet life? No way.

And turning off the computer doesn't solve the solution as bullying often spills into real life. You can't escape cyber-bullying and it's no joke.

 

[night_chrono]

I rest my case.

 

[random_bars]

On the contrary, the only way you can get cyberbullied is if you're not anonymous online.

 

[Antari]

Ya and this won't make Facebook any enemies or anything. What do they think they own the internet now?

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

Well, her brother has gone on record saying that today's youngsters don't ~want~ privacy and that we should start considering privacy a thing of the past (because apparently you don't want privacy if you're cool and hip), what could you possibly expect from her?

 

[babinro]

People deserve to be responsible for their actions. Anonymity is no reason to show how racist you are, or give a reason to pirate or attack because you're a faceless entity.

On the other hand, employers should not deny employment based on actions made by someone 10 years ago. People are curious beings who change over time and should not be damned for their past.

All and all, I put strongly agree with this idea. I have a hard time explaining why, but it just feels like the right thing to do.