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Should the Internet remain anonymous?


rangeor

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I've been my own special part of the Internet for about seven years now, and for the past year or two I've begun to dislike it more and more. In general the Internet is a beautiful thing, allowing us to communicate globally and integrate cultures. Though it's also a very disgusting place, filled with torment and theft and all sorts of evil. For example, this past Monday a Swedish man of 21 posted on Sweden's version of /b/, called Flashback, a thread stating that he was going to commit suicide. There were good people that tried to coerce him out of killing himself, trying to understand what his problem is, how they can help him solve it, etc. However, as with any anonymous message board, there were people that accused him of trolling, people that egged him on, and people that didn't even care if it was real or not. Well, he killed himself. Totally showed those guys that he was tough enough to go through with it, amirite?

 

...

 

Let's imagine an alternate universe where every Internet user is required to submit an Internet ID for every contribution they make to the Internet, be it joining a message board, uploading a youtube video, buying a t-shirt on amazon, or even signing onto an Instant Messaging service. Let's also assume this is a perfect world and these ID's aren't forged, and there aren't users with multiple fake ID's. In this perfect alternate universe, do you think there would have been people that egged the poor Swedish man on? They would have seen is ID, had access to view his Facebook and all of his Internet history, and most likely would have judged that he is indeed serious about following through with it. Then, assuming that they do egg him on and he does commit suicide, they probably would be legally punished, since their ID is also trackable.

 

This is why trolling/generally stupid behavior is more rare on facebook: You know the people (at least you should) that you are communicating with. They aren't random strangers. You can see their history, you can see what they look like. If someone were to post on facebook that they might kill themselves, I seriously doubt he would have gotten egged on. His friends would probably comfort him the best they could; some might call the police, some might even go to his house to console him. But no, this was the anonymous Internet, where repercussions are meaningless because you aren't anyone.

 

I personally think that removing the anonymity from the Internet would make it a much better place. Nearly everything (that I can think of) that is good about the Internet that has helped mankind advance would still be there, but the disgusting nature of the dark depths of the Internet would probably be mostly eradicated.

 

I bring this up because I've probably spent more time lurking/posting here on TIF than any other online community, and have seen nearly the entire spectrum of the Internet user here, from the just-found-out-how-to-use-Google user to the /b/ troll. It would be interesting to hear what you guys think about this.

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Honestly, I'm not sure about this to be honest. There's just too many issues that line up in my head with this, and so many red flags going off I'm not sure if this would be a good idea.

I was going to eat hot dogs for dinner tonight. I think I will settle for cereal.

 

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The first thing I think of is what of sex predators? How are you going to stop them from getting to say a 10 year old? If nothing is anonymous, then the aforementioned pred has access to where people live, how old they are etc...

Finally on here to update that I have officially quit! It's been fun.
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Something you also have to consider is if the internet had no anonymous identities, would people like that Swedish man post about wanting to commit suicide in the first place? Many people only share their secrets online because it is often a way to express yourself without having any past history tied to you which could create biased responses from others.

 

While taking away the ability to be anonymous would help fix some of the worse problems on the internet, it also discourages a lot of valid opinions/thoughts that wouldn't be shared by people who want what they have to say to remain separate from real life.

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The first thing I think of is what of sex predators? How are you going to stop them from getting to say a 10 year old? If nothing is anonymous, then the aforementioned pred has access to where people live, how old they are etc...

There's a difference between not having anonymity and having every single detail exposed to the public.

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I do believe there's some sort of law where people under 13 can't share their personal information anyways, isn't there? While it sounds almost like a good idea, I think there's too many unknowns, and dangers that people start to think of. Not sure what the answer should be.. Didn't WOW try to do this recently, and then they backed down upon getting obliterated by public opinion? :P

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The first thing I think of is what of sex predators? How are you going to stop them from getting to say a 10 year old? If nothing is anonymous, then the aforementioned pred has access to where people live, how old they are etc...

There's a difference between not having anonymity and having every single detail exposed to the public.

 

Yes, I understand this, but within 10 minutes someone could find out everything about you with just a few simple searches. I remember there was a topic here and a member here found out personal details extremely fast with few details.

Finally on here to update that I have officially quit! It's been fun.
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Internet needs to remain anonymous. I don't have the articulation to really elaborate that opinion, but I feel it strongly.

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The first thing I think of is what of sex predators? How are you going to stop them from getting to say a 10 year old? If nothing is anonymous, then the aforementioned pred has access to where people live, how old they are etc...

There's a difference between not having anonymity and having every single detail exposed to the public.

 

Yes, I understand this, but within 10 minutes someone could find out everything about you with just a few simple searches. I remember there was a topic here and a member here found out personal details extremely fast with few details.

Of course this would be a possibility, and as blakdragon said there are a lot of unknowns. I mean, there would be a LOT to consider about what would be required to be public, what would be suggested to be public, how easily available this information is, etc. Even right now complete anonymity isn't possible on the Internet, but it's clearly enough. Though in most of these 'find out everything about these people' cases, the people doing the searching were anonymous. If EVERYONE was public and trackable, that might change things. MIGHT is the keyword, and I don't think the Internet would get any more unsafe than it is now.

 

Kinggabe, you're terrible. This man had Asperger's and Austism, and was clinically depressed. I don't care how cynical you are, that's [bleep]ing disrespectful.

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Yes, I understand this, but within 10 minutes someone could find out everything about you with just a few simple searches. I remember there was a topic here and a member here found out personal details extremely fast with few details.

In which case some serious parental control would have to take place. Even now the internet is NOT a place for an unsupervised child.

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Yes, I understand this, but within 10 minutes someone could find out everything about you with just a few simple searches. I remember there was a topic here and a member here found out personal details extremely fast with few details.

In which case some serious parental control would have to take place. Even now the internet is NOT a place for an unsupervised child.

And in other news, the whole COICA bill, which would end up actually stripping out privacy/anonymity, actually made me physically sick. There is just so much that is wrong with this idea I am feeling a pit in my stomach.

I was going to eat hot dogs for dinner tonight. I think I will settle for cereal.

 

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I'm not going to comment too much on it, but it'll give the government way too much power, all in the name of "stopping piracy" when it won't even do that effectively by virtue of how torrents work. Hell, let's put things this way: If Viacom or whoever thinks that Youtube is infringing on copyright, they could shut it down without a court order. And that's the beginning of the problem.

 

And still, if the "dox" threads are anything to go by, the ID system will make finding someone way too convenient. Even without that ID system, people can still be found very very easily. Not to mention IP addresses, and the fact the idea just doesn't seem to coincide well with net neutrality.

I was going to eat hot dogs for dinner tonight. I think I will settle for cereal.

 

OPEN WIDE HERE COMES THE HELICOPTER.

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Cracked done an article on this a while back.... Ah, here it is. http://www.cracked.com/article_18661_the-end-online-anonymity-why-will-you-be-freaking-out.html For those of you new to this particular site, cracked.com uses... COLORFUL language. Consider yourself warned.

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Silly idea. Although, there are questions asked before actually taking part in this little 'debate'.

 

How 'unanonymous' are we going to get? Should we have an online passport, that shows every site we've been on, every comment we've made, every site we've browsed, every word typed and every keystroke of every muose movement? Are we going to give a name, date of birth, age, gender, sexual orientation, list of most visited sites, list of all sites visited, etc? What are you going to do to make sure the person on the computer is really that guy he logged in as?

 

Account sharing happens on RuneScape, emails, and workplaces. There is a whole bunch of new scenarios that we potentially have to face.

 

An example of where simply posting your real name can get you into deep crap: http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/News/219257,more-cases-of-real-idblizzard-fallout.aspx

 

Until you propose a scenario, with examples, we won't be able to argue effectively.

 

Edit - Another link. http://seewhatyoudidthere.com/2010/07/07/realid-changes-the-very-real-ease-of-stalking-in-the-internet-age/

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I've been my own special part of the Internet for about seven years now, and for the past year or two I've begun to dislike it more and more. In general the Internet is a beautiful thing, allowing us to communicate globally and integrate cultures. Though it's also a very disgusting place, filled with torment and theft and all sorts of evil. For example, this past Monday a Swedish man of 21 posted on Sweden's version of /b/, called Flashback, a thread stating that he was going to commit suicide. There were good people that tried to coerce him out of killing himself, trying to understand what his problem is, how they can help him solve it, etc. However, as with any anonymous message board, there were people that accused him of trolling, people that egged him on, and people that didn't even care if it was real or not. Well, he killed himself. Totally showed those guys that he was tough enough to go through with it, amirite?

 

...

 

Let's imagine an alternate universe where every Internet user is required to submit an Internet ID for every contribution they make to the Internet, be it joining a message board, uploading a youtube video, buying a t-shirt on amazon, or even signing onto an Instant Messaging service. Let's also assume this is a perfect world and these ID's aren't forged, and there aren't users with multiple fake ID's. In this perfect alternate universe, do you think there would have been people that egged the poor Swedish man on? They would have seen is ID, had access to view his Facebook and all of his Internet history, and most likely would have judged that he is indeed serious about following through with it. Then, assuming that they do egg him on and he does commit suicide, they probably would be legally punished, since their ID is also trackable.

 

This is why trolling/generally stupid behavior is more rare on facebook: You know the people (at least you should) that you are communicating with. They aren't random strangers. You can see their history, you can see what they look like. If someone were to post on facebook that they might kill themselves, I seriously doubt he would have gotten egged on. His friends would probably comfort him the best they could; some might call the police, some might even go to his house to console him. But no, this was the anonymous Internet, where repercussions are meaningless because you aren't anyone.

 

I personally think that removing the anonymity from the Internet would make it a much better place. Nearly everything (that I can think of) that is good about the Internet that has helped mankind advance would still be there, but the disgusting nature of the dark depths of the Internet would probably be mostly eradicated.

 

I bring this up because I've probably spent more time lurking/posting here on TIF than any other online community, and have seen nearly the entire spectrum of the Internet user here, from the just-found-out-how-to-use-Google user to the /b/ troll. It would be interesting to hear what you guys think about this.

 

To summarize your Thread:

 

There are millions upon millions of people who have access to the World-Wide-Web, a great majority of those people take advantage of such a great opportunity.

Some use it to further themselves in lives mentally - Examples are endless.

& Some use it in the attempts to destroy another person's ego emotionally.

With every human being having a different personality with a different way of thinking, you need to just accept the fact not everyone can understand what you see, feel what you feel, & do what you'd like them to do.

 

The human race is remarkable, & when you give it a computer with some internet access, it's true colors will radiate.

1. "My ear's in a cup, I guess that doesn't count..."

2. "So heyyy, that's a pretty reasonable reaction huh?"

3. "So you up for NAFTA?"

4. "That went exactly how I wanted it to."

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There has been very little arguments against annonymity so far. The suicide example, sorry to break it to you, I wouldn't really give a damn. There's so many trolls and fakers out there you can't expect to believe every thing posted.

 

Applying real ID because of a handful of trolls feeding other trolls in a suposed "sucide" thread, is ridiculous.

"The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you never hear it you'll never know what justice is."

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The above examples however should not count, because only a few people gave up their names. The people doing the bad things remained anonymous. If they had their names published, would they still go ahead with what they do?

 

It would be a massive change in how the internet and the world works, but I for one would welcome it. It could possibly lead to a whole new age of internet prosperity. If nobody had to be scared of the internet, think of all the new information we could get a hold of, all of the new people that could potentially use it. With no anonymity, we could get so many new things working on the internet. Online emergency services for example. It would also allow the proper authorities to correctly police the internet. This could even curb terrorism/random attacks. Imagine if somebody is looking at weapons, military tactics, bomb plans for example, police could actively know who they are and question them as to why they are using it.

 

So called 'human rights' have held humanity back in the last half century, unfortunately they only seem to be expanding not contracting which will not help us move forward at all.

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Which police? The Bolvian police or Federal Agents of the United States?

 

We all know of the US ambition to control the internet and I will no way shape or form let that mafia have the last jewel of unbiased, unpolitical territory.

"The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you never hear it you'll never know what justice is."

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Which police? The Bolvian police or Federal Agents of the United States?

 

We all know of the US ambition to control the internet and I will no way shape or form let that mafia have the last jewel of unbiased, unpolitical territory.

 

Nobody can or ever will leave well enough alone.

1. "My ear's in a cup, I guess that doesn't count..."

2. "So heyyy, that's a pretty reasonable reaction huh?"

3. "So you up for NAFTA?"

4. "That went exactly how I wanted it to."

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Which police? The Bolvian police or Federal Agents of the United States?

 

We all know of the US ambition to control the internet and I will no way shape or form let that mafia have the last jewel of unbiased, unpolitical territory.

 

 

the police of whichever country a person is from. I am not talking about censorship, but I am talking about people doing illegal actions online. Different from what you may think, the police are not evil overlords bent on making us all slaves. The police are there to protect people. Just as a policeman walks down the street, a countries online police would handle reports made of a certain persons illegal internet activities. No illegal activities? No worry.

 

Also, you say the internet is unbiased and unpolitical? I beg to differ. The internet is very anti government, anti authoritarian and in certain places anarchist. On the whole, across the majority of message boards on the internet, I would place bets that you will find the internet very biased if you take a step back and look.

 

the world needs authority, like it or not, it is the driving force of human civilisation.

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One could argue the lack of economical authority advanced the world in new technology and quality of life.

 

And by the unbiased/unpolitically place I meant the internet is not swayed to do the bidding of a overlord country and no political entity controls it. the internet is unique place because nobody owns it. More great works come from the internet than real life. Why? Because in real life you'll need a lot of capital and contacts to do any good; the internet a YouTube video can turn big.

 

Besides, where there's government there's capitalists: one big old mafia. Verizon, Apple, ATT, General Electric, Mircosoft will all try to control and capitalize the internet. This will make it like real life, where the self-entrepeneur is non-existant due to big companies pushing him down.

 

I understand where you're coming from, but where's there's government there's corruption and the political or economical oppression.

"The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you never hear it you'll never know what justice is."

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Nobody would own the internet if we were to stop anonymity either though. Individual countries would be responsible for keeping their own users inside their own laws on the internet, apart from that, state control would almost cease. As currently we do have censorship on the internet, for example in china, where you could say they do almost own their section of the internet. However, instead of people being able to bypass this censorship and partake in illegal activities, they would be noted down by whichever country they are from and prosecuted accordingly.

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