http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/zuckerbergs-sister-takes-aim-at-internet-bullies-2327995.html

In the rapidly progressing age of information, the lack of one's own responsibility and common sense should not and can not be fixed with the loss of online anonymity to prevent cyber-bullying. It should not as online anonymity provides the necessary tools for basic interserver privacy and puts up a basic, personal information block between the Internet and the real world, which can be expanded further via various tools e.g. proxy servers and VPNs, and can be vital for getting out information without easily giving away the identity of the poster.
It can not as the problem itself lies at both the perpetrator and victim, the former for not respecting real world privacy and the latter for putting oneself in a potentially embarrasing or exploitable situation e.g. being recorded on video while nvde and not closing the blinds. Removing online anonymity is not going to remove the misbehaviour on both parties. Removing it will also force everyone to put out sensitive information on the net in a time when identity thefts are becoming ever more prevalent.

Thoughts?

I see your Zuckerburg and raise you a Moot

Edit: Huh, I don't remember that huge explitive being at the beginning making it impossible for me to link on here. Just google Ted Talks Moot (really surprising it's there given it's TED Talk).

I disagree, if people have to use their real name then that leads to no privacy and more fraud.

Hello, I am Ms. Zuckerburg.

It's not like lack of anonymity has ever stopped anyone anyways. People bully each other openly over Facebook all the time.

I do remember back in World of Warcraft, they tried to implement the RealID system which would display your actual name everywhere. There were people who were seriously afraid for their lives because you never know who could be out there. Anonymity is a layer of protection. Even in the real world, you should never shout your name and where you live in public for all to hear.

I wrote an essay about this last year, it's a very controversial subject to debate against and for.

It's a bit different dependig on the site too.

for example, this is a forum. A forum with anonymous users could turn into a trolling place and generally complete mess. I noted, iirc, two solutions for this.
1: Remove anonymity and make the persons breaking the forums rules be punished in real-life, forcing you to behave or be charged with a fine. Instantly, a problem occurs. What stops a person from creating a person who doesn't exist or steal another persons identity and troll on the behalf of the others wallet?
2: Keep anonymity, but add moderators. Yes, a solution we already have. It works perfectly on forums, a group of moderators who see that the rules of the site are followed and stops the anonymous users turning into trolls.

As for a site like Facebook.. it gets so messy I don't even want to go into it. But facebook, as it is right now, allows you to create a person named Rick Roll (add X amount of Z's in the end on Roll to make it a new user) and you are anonymous. In the mid of it all, there are many, many who are not anonymous. Thus, giving the troll a tool to troll as much as he wants without him being personally involved at all.

I think we should keep the internet anonymous. But I'm tempted by the very thought that cyberbullies would be punished in real-life by what they do on the internet.. It's not really that flawless of a process that it'd be worth it.

Zuckerburg can go find a well behaved forum then, like this one...or not.

I like anonymity because I can share my interests and secrets and junk without having to feel embarressed or worried if a friend I knows I said something about a particular group or government and track me down because I don't agree with the main populace on certain social ideas or laws.

You know like that whole 1984 novel was about.

Did Zuckerburg get her feelwings hurt over the interwebz? svck it up, their just trolls. Use the ignore option.

Oh yes, because people totally don't ever bully, threaten or hurt others in real life. So, if we just remove anonymity on the Interwebs, it will just be like real life and everything will be better.

Well, anonymity is basically the same thing as being able to become a faceless shadow and walk in public places, while actually sitting comfortably at your home, away from any and all suspicion, free to do anything without consequences. Just putting that out there, I still think anonymity should stay.

Anonymity on the internet is the same basic level of protection you get when you walk out in public. If your real name isn't floating above your head, you don't need to tell anyone who you are.

Reneer has the right of it anyways. People bully each other in real life all the time, it's not like knowing their name will make them stop. Terrible people will keep doing terrible things because they really don't care.

Zukerburg can bite me.

Also, Randi, your [inset something here that would hurt her feelings, whatever it may be]

You forget to mention the really big CCTV camera that is your ISP.

Granted, people skilled with computers can mask their communications from their ISP by using proper encryption. But that's a different matter entirely.

What a schmuck. Just wait till she gets her social security stolen via facial recognition tech and the woefully inadequate numbering system for social security numbers (there was an article about it on WSJ today, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903341404576480371062384798.html). Then we'll see what she thinks about it when her identity is stolen.

And aside from that, what a naive dope she is! There are many countries were users are caught and punished when their ever-watchful governments link online activity to a real person.

Zuckypoo's mom should just roll around in whatever cash he gives her and shut the hell up about stuff she doesn't know jack [censored] about.

There is a line, that if you cross it, it's gone too far and it's not going to be ifnored by authorities. In public, even without your name floating above your head, you can't safely attempt to rob a bank or a store. Anonymity on the internet though, allows you to cross the line as far as you want without consequences. On the internet, these stuff could be described as account steling, bank-account usage and other illegal stuff, which are clearly theft of personal property. Ofcourse, it's not the account that steal the things, it's the computer, afaik, and removing anonymity wouldn't really stop that - but if those things wouldn't be possible to do without being recognized-then it would be the same thing as real-life theft, which it sadly isn't.

I was stolen 13€ over the PSN, somehow, I have no idea what so ever who did it, but if the anonymity of such an action could be stopped, well, let's just say that the person wouldn't probably have done it in the first place.

Also, I might want to add here that I completely agree with you, just trying to discuss this from the view of removing anonymity as a good thing. :wink_smile:

Ms Zuckerburg has obviously never seen the wall comments on public Facebook groups.

Getting rid of anonymity won't do a thing and would do one heck of a lot more harm than good. The only thing that would stop trolling is if sites start enforcing their own rules. And since that's not going to happen anytime soon with sites like Youtube or (insert censored site here), we just have to learn to tolerate the morons with the good people.

He would say that wouldn't he, he owns Facebook...

Well she would say wouldn't she, she's the marketing director of Facebook.

I'd like to point out that #2 doesn't work with a truely anonymous board. Moderators can only enforce rules on members in an effective manner when there are pseudonyms (aka: usernames) assigned to users. Without being able to enforce rules on users, all you are left with is deleting content, which isn't enforcing rules so much as sweeping stuff under the rug. What exists on this forum isn't true anonymity (but due to the forum blocking spidering, it's closer to actual anonymity than many other forums)

Also your problem with #1 is only a scratch on the surface. The real problems are people tracking people down in real life and causing real harm to them. That's the reality of lack of anonymity on the Internet: people tracking you down and physically hurting you. You may think that could never happened, but there are countless cases of assult, attempted murder, and actual murder over things like online games, forums, and even just stupid pictures.

Going even further, removing anonymity opens the door for cyber-stalking on a grand scale. Rather than closing the door to harassment, it opens the door to very effective and pin-pointed harassment.

Finally there is the case of physical harm coming to those who have beliefs or are part of a cause. Without anonymity protecting these people, they either cannot talk or get silenced immediately for talking.

So persistent identities online really is a non-solution.

The point of the matter is that you can't remove anonymity on the Internet. If being anonymous on the Internet was somehow magically made illegal, everywhere, only Anonymous would be anonymous.

And there are certainly consequences to stealing someone's bank account over the Internet - if you get caught. Likewise, there are consequences if you rob a bank - and get caught. Wearing a mask of anonymity in both situations doesn't automatically remove the consequences from your actions - it just makes it more difficult for someone to catch you. People rob banks all the time without wearing masks, for example. Or they wear a silicone mask and pretend to be someone else instead.

And, as DEFRON mentioned, removing anonymity on the Internet could have very real-world consequences - like government cracking down on dissidents, for example. Or random stalkers easily finding out where people live via government databases.

killing anonymity on the internet will have the same effect DRM has against piracy, absolutely nothing against illegitimate users and a lot of downsides for legitimate users

FAIL!
Zuckerburg is a complete idiot. :facepalm:

All this is going to do is increase identity theft and cause more problems. Honestly how dose someone even get cyber bullied just don't feed the trolls.

EDIT: You can just put in any name if they ask for your name. You could put your name as Michael Jackson, Dr. Phill, Bob Marley, etc.

Now that must have been why I only got 40 out of 60 from my essay. :whistling:

But moderator's are needed for a forum to stay as clean as possible while being anonymous. Another point I made against the removal of anonymity was that it kills converstations. If everyone was talking as themselves, a lot of things would be left un-said and conversations in forums wouldn't be as in-depth as they can be now. Moderators do have to power, afaik, to delete users and evens top them from making a new user from the same computer, whatever it is called that tracks that.

But still, I completely agree and good points Defron :bowdown:

Who needs government databases when you have stupid people with publicly-viewable facebook pages listing their hometown, school, and place of employment? Not to mention also tweeting their every move in the city....

Moderators do have the power to ban a user's IP address, that's quite true. But, again, if you know what you're doing, it is entirely possible to create another account on, say, these forums via certain methods I won't describe here and continue posting. Of course, if someone gets banned, creates a new account and starts doing the exact same stuff, well, connecting the dots can't be that hard.

And that is why I have my Facebook locked down as tight as I can. I really should just delete the thing.

I frankly don't give a flying [censored] what Ms Zuckerberg thinks.

Alaisiage pretty much nailed it.

Ms Zuckerburg, how I facepalm you so.