The article in the url below is interesting because it is tackling online trolls. Specifically, it addresses the idea that allowing anonymity online increases the overall tension and amount of abuse that we see every day on social media:
"In early July, when England's soccer team lost the European Championship final to Italy on its home turf, the crushing defeat was followed by a torrent of racist abuse on social media directed at the team's Black players. … this episode renewed calls for tech companies to enforce identity verification for their users. A petition of the British government demanding that it make 'verified ID a requirement for opening a social media account' has more than 688,000 signatures. 'We have rights to free speech and association, but as real people, not fake people,' wrote Paul Mason, a columnist for The New Statesman."
Instead, the article questions whether online anonymity is even possible:
"After a decade in which online identity came under increasingly centralized control, in which various digital and offline identities were mingled, and during which personal data became a hot global commodity, control over one's identity is starting to look more like a threatened privilege than a right. To exist online is to be constantly asked to show yourself."
More important, however, the article reports research suggesting that anonymity (or, more likely, "pseudonymity" – the use of a pseudonym to mask our real identity) is not as obvious a cause of online abuse as people might think. First, the author reports research suggesting that anonymity online does not produce the behavior that is commonly attributed to it:
"In studies, for example, anonymous actors tend to be more, not less, sensitive to group norms. More than half of victims of online harassment already know their harassers. While there is scant evidence that 'real name' policies mitigate abuse, there is plenty suggesting that asking people to expose more private information can intensify it. Researchers have found that, in some contexts, the most aggressive commenters have been observed to be more likely to reveal their identities."
Second, the author makes the case that, even if being forced to engage online under our true identities would reduce online abuse for some, it would raise the prospect of real-life abuse for other, more vulnerable groups:
"Writing in response to recent calls for the end of anonymity, the journalist Hussein Kesvani reiterated concerns that compelling identifying information from the most vulnerable could leave them worse off. He also pointed to smaller but more universal losses. … Mr. Kesvani, who recently published a book on the online life of young Muslims, said his research subjects described anonymity and pseudonymity as ways to avoid the gazes of their families, to explore beyond their denominational communities and to socialize — in other words, more or less the same reasons any young person might desire privacy, online or off."
Perhaps more controversially, the author also argues that we already adopt different norms and standards of behavior in the many different facets of our real world lives:
"Of course people might want to construct a new identity [online], out of sight of, say, teachers or co-workers. In this context, asking why someone might say or do something online that they wouldn't in person is as absurd as asking if they'd act the same way in front of their closest friends as they would in front of their parents."
And, then there are developing norms within certain communities where even the concept of your 'real' name is complicated:
"In 2014, during a push to enforce a 'real name' policy across its platform, Facebook found itself directly at odds with transgender users, among many others, for whom chosen names were a condition of using the platform safely, or at all."
Evolving technology, however, threatens to render much of this discussion moot, in a way that is not reassuring:
"Today, it's hard to overstate just how thoroughly connected a typical internet user's various identities — legal, chosen, assigned — have become. … Facial-recognition technology threatens to tie together all of our identities, everywhere and always."
In other words, while you might be able to 'mask' your true identity in one forum, the idea that everything is connected and someone always knows who you are, is a reality that does not seem far away.
Take care
David
David Chandler
© Sage Publications, 2020
Rethinking the Divide Over Psudonymity Online
By John Herrman
August 1, 2021
The New York Times
Late Edition – Final
ST9
