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

[jpoon]

Strongly disagree. Fuck this idiot and his ideas.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Cyber-bullying isn't the problem, people with such weak wills and poor self esteem that bullshit some dickhead says to them online forces them to scurry to mommy or daddy going whaaaaaaaa, or in the worst cases taking a straight edge to their veins. is the problem, why has each new generation gotten progressively weaker in the dept of self esteem and self worth? it is ridiculous

*Please note that I support keeping the internet anonymous, and while I have been bullied extensively, I was not cyber bullied because I had no online ANYTHING back in high school*

Cyber bullying isn't getting one or two hurtful comments on your facebook. Cyber bullying usually entails at least these two things:

It's when you're expecting an email from a friend, so you open your email and the first 10 pages of your inbox are stuff like "UR A !@#$IN' Gayass and should !@#$ a razor!" or "Your very existence is sin and you should kill yourself you loathsome piece of !@#$", and it's from many different people, so you feel like half the world is against you. And this happens EVERY FREAKING DAY TO YOU. If you're a teen who is struggling to find your identity, seeing this kind of thing directed at you WILL shape your identity for you if it happens often enough.

Second, this allows the bullying to spread like wildfire through the school, and beyond. There was this case I heard where some girl decided to cut ties to some of her friends, since they were turning into jerks. ...Those girls then labeled her the school "slut", and spread fake stores about her all over the internet. The whole school believed it, got caught up in it, and made her life hell everywhere she went. THEN, finally, it was too much for her, and she changed schools. ...But guess what? Her name and those stories were on the internet. ...So people at THAT new school knew about her already, and it was back to the same old shit within a few weeks. She had to move halfway across the country before she finally got any peace.

Also, please note that not all of us are badasses. Some of us are wimpy ass pacifists who can't even bring ourselves harm to people in our dreams. As such, we are unable to deal with the bully situation in real life by fighting back. Even if I would have been strong enough to fight back, My conscience would have been screaming at me that I was becoming just like them.

So yes, it's a problem. My heart goes out to anyone suffering from stuff like this.

 

[jamesworkshop]

I think the massive popularity of these sites is because people are too egotistacle for the net to remain anomous for too long anyway

 

[Esotera]

This would work. Doesn't mean it's a good idea though.

How would you enforce this, for a start? There's no feasible way to make sure 100% of a population is who they say they are - no software is entirely hacker-proof. And anonymity can be very good sometimes. Just look at the people who use the Tor project so they can continue political activism in repressive regimes. Yes, douchebags will abuse anonymity, but the internet would be a very different place without it.

 

[Gwarr]

This would work. Doesn't mean it's a good idea though.

How would you enforce this, for a start? There's no feasible way to make sure 100% of a population is who they say they are - no software is entirely hacker-proof. And anonymity can be very good sometimes. Just look at the people who use the Tor project so they can continue political activism in repressive regimes. Yes, douchebags will abuse anonymity, but the internet would be a very different place without it.

It's called security number in the USA right? The number you have on your real life ID . Yeah , they could just obligate you to type that when you wanna register to a forum . This sound more and more like a totalitarian regime? Well indeed it does.

Don't know if you guys read everything , but it seems Google supports this too . Does Google and Facebook have enough lobby power to pass this BS?

 

[Esotera]

This would work. Doesn't mean it's a good idea though.

How would you enforce this, for a start? There's no feasible way to make sure 100% of a population is who they say they are - no software is entirely hacker-proof. And anonymity can be very good sometimes. Just look at the people who use the Tor project so they can continue political activism in repressive regimes. Yes, douchebags will abuse anonymity, but the internet would be a very different place without it.

It's called security number in the USA right? The number you have on your real life ID . Yeah , they could just obligate you to type that when you wanna register to a forum . This sound more and more like a totalitarian regime? Well indeed it does.

Don't know if you guys read everything , but it seems Google supports this too . Does Google and Facebook have enough lobby power to pass this BS?

Hm. But what's to stop someone from stealing someone else's security number, or using that of someone deceased (a la Day of the Jackal)? The sad thing is a large amount of people probably won't care about this, when it goes entirely against the founding principles of the internet.

No surprise that google & facebook want this. Hopefully it won't get through, but I'm not too optimistic with google behind this.

 

[TheDooD]

To me people that takes cyberbulling and harassment too leave themselves TOO open online. You leave all your information for others to see and of course that doesn't stop jackasses from making fun of you. Instead of ruining it for everybody else simply block'em online and punch'em the jaw in real life.

 

[Echo136]

If there were no anonymity on the net, I wouldnt be using it. Theres far too many ways for people to scam you out of your money as it is, and it would only be easier if people knew my name.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Haha good luck enforcing that.

 

[StBishop]

That ***** is either lying or stupid.

(See? Sincerity)

Agreed. The easiest way to stop people from being bullied online is obviously to shut down the intrenet!

 

[TheDooD]

Cyber-bullying isn't the problem, people with such weak wills and poor self esteem that bullshit some dickhead says to them online forces them to scurry to mommy or daddy going whaaaaaaaa, or in the worst cases taking a straight edge to their veins. is the problem, why has each new generation gotten progressively weaker in the dept of self esteem and self worth? it is ridiculous

*Please note that I support keeping the internet anonymous, and while I have been bullied extensively, I was not cyber bullied because I had no online ANYTHING back in high school*

Cyber bullying isn't getting one or two hurtful comments on your facebook. Cyber bullying usually entails at least these two things:

It's when you're expecting an email from a friend, so you open your email and the first 10 pages of your inbox are stuff like "UR A !@#$IN' Gayass and should !@#$ a razor!" or "Your very existence is sin and you should kill yourself you loathsome piece of !@#$", and it's from many different people, so you feel like half the world is against you. And this happens EVERY FREAKING DAY TO YOU. If you're a teen who is struggling to find your identity, seeing this kind of thing directed at you WILL shape your identity for you if it happens often enough.

Second, this allows the bullying to spread like wildfire through the school, and beyond. There was this case I heard where some girl decided to cut ties to some of her friends, since they were turning into jerks. ...Those girls then labeled her the school "slut", and spread fake stores about her all over the internet. The whole school believed it, got caught up in it, and made her life hell everywhere she went. THEN, finally, it was too much for her, and she changed schools. ...But guess what? Her name and those stories were on the internet. ...So people at THAT new school knew about her already, and it was back to the same old shit within a few weeks. She had to move halfway across the country before she finally got any peace.

Also, please note that not all of us are badasses. Some of us are wimpy ass pacifists who can't even bring ourselves harm to people in our dreams. As such, we are unable to deal with the bully situation in real life by fighting back. Even if I would have been strong enough to fight back, My conscience would have been screaming at me that I was becoming just like them.

So yes, it's a problem. My heart goes out to anyone suffering from stuff like this.

I been bullied and I was that peaceful person. Shoot I'm still am peaceful overall I never let words hurts because I let people know not to fuck around with me or my good name. I got my point across that I will fuck them up if they keep screwing around. I was normally bullied because I was normally a weak and sickly kid. Then because I was the tallest because I got my growth spurt early. After that I started gaining muscle and my health improved. I started to notice that bullies feared me. I never got into fights but I made sure I got my point across when people take some things too far. People don't need to be badasses but nobody should ever let people walk over them.

 

[Guilherme Zoldan]

Okay one thing people should get. Cyberbullying is not about people calling you bad names over the internet, its about being treatened and hacked and having your personal information divulged by some assholes. Eliminating anonymity would not solve that problem, it would make it worse. Anonymity is most people's best line of defence against that sort of thing.

 

[matt_newgrove]

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

Only as long as we let them. Notice how the Escapist also has their like button, with built-in tracking cookies for everyone visiting the page?

At the moment of writing, this url http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.303343-Poll-Randi-Zuckerberg-Anonymity-Online-Has-To-Go-Away-Opinions?page=2#comment_form i.e this thread, is connecting me to facebook.com, google-analytics.com and a number of other sites. Would you look at that

 

[JET1971]

Megan Taylor Meier (November 6, 1992 ? October 17, 2006), an American teenager from Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, committed suicide by hanging three weeks before her 14th birthday. A year later, Meier's parents prompted an investigation into the matter and her suicide was attributed to cyber-bullying through the social networking website MySpace. The mother of a friend of Meier, Lori Drew, was later indicted on the matter in 2008, but in 2009, Drew was acquitted.

Ryan Patrick Halligan (December 18, 1989 ? October 7, 2003) was an American schoolboy from Essex Junction, Vermont, who committed suicide at the age of 13 after bullying from his classmates in real life and cyber-bullying online. According to the Associated Press, Halligan was repeatedly sent instant messages from middle school classmates accusing him of being gay, and was "threatened, taunted and insulted incessantly".

The suicide of Phoebe Prince, on January 14, 2010, led to the criminal prosecution of six teenagers for charges including statutory rape and civil rights violations, as well as to the enactment of stricter anti-bullying legislation by the Massachusetts state legislature.

After her death, many crude comments about her were posted on her Facebook memorial page, most of which were removed.

These were all commited by someone they knew in the real world, not from some anonymous stranger on the internet. Myspace and FB empowers the bullies because of the lack of anonyminity of the victim.

 

[Someone lost on TVTropes]

Yeah, stop cyberbullying by making everyone put out their personal info, real bright idea there.
Wouldn't this just increase real bullying, thus making the problem worse? Anonymity on the internet
is great, just like freedom of speech, so of course a few assholes are going to exploit it (WBC anyone?).

 

[Averant]

We've already tried this, remember? With Blizzard. Granted, this isn't a game, but it's highly similar. If I remember right, NOBODY WANTED IT. What makes this any different?

 

[Fleischer]

Megan Taylor Meier (November 6, 1992 ? October 17, 2006), an American teenager from Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, committed suicide by hanging three weeks before her 14th birthday. A year later, Meier's parents prompted an investigation into the matter and her suicide was attributed to cyber-bullying through the social networking website MySpace. The mother of a friend of Meier, Lori Drew, was later indicted on the matter in 2008, but in 2009, Drew was acquitted.

Ryan Patrick Halligan (December 18, 1989 ? October 7, 2003) was an American schoolboy from Essex Junction, Vermont, who committed suicide at the age of 13 after bullying from his classmates in real life and cyber-bullying online. According to the Associated Press, Halligan was repeatedly sent instant messages from middle school classmates accusing him of being gay, and was "threatened, taunted and insulted incessantly".

The suicide of Phoebe Prince, on January 14, 2010, led to the criminal prosecution of six teenagers for charges including statutory rape and civil rights violations, as well as to the enactment of stricter anti-bullying legislation by the Massachusetts state legislature.

After her death, many crude comments about her were posted on her Facebook memorial page, most of which were removed.

These were all commited by someone they knew in the real world, not from some anonymous stranger on the internet. Myspace and FB empowers the bullies because of the lack of anonyminity of the victim.

You saved me the effort of citing these, and other, tragic cases of children killing themselves as a result of bullying that included cyber bullying. Thanks.

 

[Fleischer]

Yeah, stop cyberbullying by making everyone put out their personal info, real bright idea there.
Wouldn't this just increase real bullying, thus making the problem worse?

If anonymity was limited on the Internet, then both of victims and the perpetrators of cyber bullying would be more identifiable. This means that the myriad instances of bullying that occur daily would be traceable and easily reported to law enforcement. I could see this as a way to vastly diminish the current wave of cyber bullying, and reduce the harm it is causing to countless children.

 

[Fleischer]

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.

And you could walk up to someone and they might randomly murder you. Or you could be murdered by someone in a case of road rage [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11193/1159911-100.stm]. I don't get your point.

Anonymity exists mainly and privacy, and thats one of my rights, so taking only anonymous away, is against the law.

Except it isn't a right, nor is it protected by any 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.

Your slippery slope argument is nonsensical. Are you saying that people having freedom and information creates crime? Well, I completely agree! So why don't we get rid of every civil liberty and there will be no more murders. When you live in a free society, it comes with a bevy of risks.

Its easy to hack when you know private things about a person, especially IP and adress, along with name and e-mail

If anonymity was limited, then the hackers would be identified as much as everyone else.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

>implying that bullies will stop bullying if you know their real name
HAHAHAHA! Really?
No, seriously. Cyber bullying is just "lol u fag" or "u shud kill urself." In other words: trolling. Bad trolling. Stuff that unless you were overly sensitive, you would laugh at the troll's spelling and grammar. In other words: its not the troll, its the person who takes the troll seriously.
Also: Not everyone become a jerkass when they're anonymous. Many use their anonymity to express things they are too scared to express offline and whatnot.
In other words: its a terrible idea for what's basically a non-issue. If that troll really gets under you skin: you can block, report, ignore, go away, take a break from the internet, etc. But you see, that would actually have people FIXING THEIR PROBLEMS themselves, which is too dangerous.