Should anonymity be denied on the internet to avoid abuse?

[thejboy88]

Title says it all. We've all, at one point or another, seen, heard or even experienced stories of how people on the internet have been abusing one another for various reasons, from trying to put down those who have a differing opinion, to those who have some kind of prejudice or bigotry against another group, or even because of sheer childishness, or maybe a slew of other reasons.

I very much doubt that I'm the first to make this suggestion, and if this is a thread that's been done before, then I apologize in advance for it. But wouldn't it perhaps be a good step against such abu8ses if anonymity, the way people can do what they like on the internet without their identities revealed, was to simply not happen?

I'm sure many of you have had similar suspicions at times, that people only say and do such things over the internet because they can hide their identities, thus shielding them from being openly revealed as the kinds of people who commit these kinds of abusive acts. Now, I'm all in favour of anonymity if the people using the internet are, say, embarrassed about announcing an opinion they think might make people look down on them, but to use it so they can get away with spouting hurtful words, racism and every other kind of bile, is just abusing that right and making the internet a less welcoming place for those who want to use it properly.

So, I would like a general discussion on the idea of reduced, if not outright removed, anonymity from the internet in order to prevent abuses like this. No more avatars, no more usernames, just straight up "this is who I am and this is what I'm saying".

 

[zen5887]

Getting rid of anonymity to stop online abuse is like trimming the branches if you've got overgrowth. It's a knee jerk reaction that isn't at all addressing the real issue. Punishment and accountability are definitely important, but so is prevention and education. Now, you're obviously not going to weed out racism and sexism that easily, but making kids aware that what they are doing is wrong, damaging, and unnecessary is going to be way more effective than stripping anonymity.

Having said that, if some institution like Reddit or The Escapist or whatever forced users to use their real details then that's totally up to them. Maybe it would stop people being shitheads, but I'm sure they'll find another way to be shitheads.

Stopping people from becoming shitheads in the first place is going to be more effective.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It'd be an interesting experiment but I doubt it would work out in the end.

 

[Hagi]

Like with the vast majority of plans for the internet you're skipping the most important step:

how?

Because current internet infrastructure makes this idea as impossible as taking a cycle-trip up to the moon.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Isn't Facebook proof it won't do shit? People say all kinds of retarded shit on there, and insult the living hell out of each other, name and face be damned.

 

[Esotera]

I don't think it's possible to enforce anonymity on the internet due to its underlying protocols, which are designed with anonymity in mind. You can certainly design services like facebook that are good at identifying people but it's always possible to avoid places like that if they're overzealous in how much they track.

Also I think online abuse is a lot more complex than just having anonymity. Case in point is the changes to youtube comments, which still remain pretty awful. It depends a lot on the tone of the place as well - some of my best discussions online have been anonymous, whereas some of my worst have been on facebook.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Er...this really isn't going to help prevent abuse. It just means instead of the stuff on the net (which is bad, I'll agree), you'll get more "I know where you live" and "This is the school your kids go to".

Now, this is a big enough problem as it is. Anyone vaguely controversial, such as feminists or someone that promotes a new safety feature for firearms will get this as it is. Increasing this doesn't seem like a good idea.

 

[JoJo]

Any forum which did that, I would leave and never come back. Last thing you need is some dumb rant or opinion that you in retrospect regret being dragged up five years down the line by an employer doing a background check, or a family member randomly searching your name. This sort of forum allows people to express opinions outside the social norm without fear of real life repercussions, and that can only be a good thing, there's no reason to believe our society's particular norms and morals are inherently superior to all others before it.

 

[Abyssalin]

I agree with what JoJo has said, removing anonymity is a bad idea.

While some people use this anonymity to abuse and generally be a toxic personality without fear of potential repercussions, the majority of people use it in a sensible way, as said, to put forth ideas and opinions under a guise of being fairly safe from backlash, because honestly in the world we live in people are attacked from anything to skin color to not liking the newest games consoles.

That is not to say it would be an interesting experiment, but as said above, with the advent of Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Google+, Steam, And any other multitude of social networking platforms people choosing to remain anonymous is becoming a genuine challenge even on the internet, and likewise even without being anonymous people are still quite horrible to people regardless.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

It would certainly see me spending less time on it and would, sadly, put an end to my time here...

Spoiler: I JUST DON'T WANT HAZY TRACKING ME DOWN, OKAY?

All I did was say that shirt looked good on you man, that's all!

Seriously though, I would stop. I like the separation of how I get to behave which, in my case, leads to ridiculousness. I would hate for those who abuse anonymity in order to abuse other humans cause me to lose the fun I have online.

 

[Ninmecu]

I'm just going to point out(Albeit linkless.) that the Escapist featured a news article regarding a study done on internet trolls that showed that said trolls troll whether online or off. So simply put, abuse would happen with or without anonimity.

 

[Scarim Coral]

What make you think that once everyone identities are reveal, they will stop trolling / bullying anybody? Ok granted most will probably stop but others will carry on. Unless you are nearby to the bully/ troll where about and you're the confronting type, what good will it do (I mean so you know what that troll/ bully look like, what are you going to do about it) other than calling the authority?

 

[Eamar]

I'll admit I've entertained the thought myself, usually when Youtube's involved. However, there are several reasons why it wouldn't work:

1) I've seen people post the most horrendous comments on various articles and such using their facebook profiles. Not just on facebook itself where they can control the audience, but on all sorts of other, very public sites with facebook plug-ins.

2) As JoJo said, it would make it much easier for people to get really nasty with threats against family etc.

3) There's no way to enforce it. What's to stop people from making fake profiles with vaguely realistic-looking information?

4) Anonymity has its upsides as well as its downsides: some people are more comfortable discussing all sorts of sensitive topics anonymously. For example, someone who's gay but not out to their family can express themselves behind a pseudonym. Someone with a mental illness can talk about it frankly without fear of an unsympathetic employer linking the comments back to them. People can ask questions about embarrassing medical issues they've been having. You're free to vent about people in your life and their behaviour (irritating family, inept colleagues, creepy exes...). The list goes on.

5) Sometimes you just don't want people you know IRL being able to track down your every profile. I don't post anything I'm ashamed of on here, and I'm pretty free with my information, I've linked to stuff with my real name on before now for example, but I'd still be a bit weirded out if one of my RL friends or family realised this was me and started checking out my posting history etc. I've abandoned forums before because I realised other people from my college were on there and I didn't want them to identify me, again not because I'd done anything wrong or embarrassing, but just because I didn't want to mix those aspects of my life. It's kind of like not wanting relatives as facebook friends (all mine are blocked) - sometimes you just want to keep different parts of your life separate.

 

[Silvanus]

My thoughts are the same as those of Thaluikhain and JoJo. I would be tremendously hesitant to post unanonymously, even if I was being totally measured and polite: people target other people on almost any basis. If anonymity was taken away completely, harassment would be far more common than it already is.

 

[laggyteabag]

To get rid of anonymity would mean that there would be a drastic change in how we sign up to websites. What would stop someone from just signing up under another name? And how would you prove that you are who you say you are without disclosing private documents? Removing anonymity would indeed do a lot to stop cyber bullying and other forms of internet abuse, but doing so would compromise a lot of privacy.

 

[DEAD34345]

Isn't Facebook proof it won't do shit? People say all kinds of retarded shit on there, and insult the living hell out of each other, name and face be damned.

This was my first reaction. Facebook pretty much single-handedly proves that anonymity isn't the cause of people being shit to one another on the internet. Personally I'm fairly certain that the reason people are shit on the net is because people are shit in real life, the net just puts you into contact with more of them.

Besides, why not just leave it as it is now, an option? People who don't want their precious feelings hurt don't have to hang around anonymous message boards, they're clearly just not for them. You can't have true freedom of expression without anonymity. Imagine if the internet was around a few decades ago, and there was no anonymity. People with controversial views like say being pro gay marriage would be afraid to voice their opinions online, as doing so would cause them to be ostracised by those around them, maybe even get them fired, like what happens to people with controversial viewpoints even today.

Basically, a lack of anonymity would make certain viewpoints un-discussable, and unless you really think the majority opinion is perfect right now, surely that's a bad thing that will only impede progress? I'd say some hurt feelings are just a natural (and relatively minor) cost to pay for freedom of expression, and that the upsides far outweigh the downsides.

 

[Padwolf]

Being denied anonymity isn't going to stop the abuse. People will be people. Now, as it's already been said, teaching kids why you shouldn't do these things is the best way to go about it and possibly the only way to go about it. Otherwise, people will abuse and hurt eachother regardless of if they can see their face or not. However, taking away anonymity will take away people's feelings of being able to express themselves how they want to.

 

[Vegosiux]

Hmmm, what I'm thinking is some sort of an opt-in system in which all people who have opted in see each other's names, while those who didn't, don't see anyone's.

But it would have to be no strings attached, no difference in experience either way. And of course, there's the issue of how you verify it without getting into people's private documents.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Wouldn't it encourage abuse, since the people being attacked can no longer be anonymous, either? It's not like anonymous people are attacking people with names; it happens the other way around, too.

 

[s3cur1tr0n]

In worrying about peoples hurt feelings are we really willing to give up one of our last bastions of free speech? The way things have been going lately with NSA spying, cell phone metadata collection etc, it would leave you no way to voice your dissent from an oppressive overreaching government.