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What If: No Social Media Anonymity (Edit) (infosec.pub)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Question for the masses because I'm curious:

What do you think social media would be like if there was no anonymity?

Is it fair to say some people behave differently online because of anonymity?

Would it be good or bad if everything you posted could be tied back to you by your friends, family, employer, etc?

Some obvious concerns people express:

personal safety
freedom to express views contrary to community, government, etc without retaliation
fear of stigmas related to support, education, etc for stigma topics like mental health, sexuality, etc

What reasons do you have for not wanting to own your online identity other than being able to talk trash without being identified? Some people are public and still talk a lot of trash, looking at you Twitter.

You you got doxed, what do you think the impact would be just related to social media conduct?

Edit: With the introduction of online protections for minors, how does that affect the question?

Not from a political standpoint but from a technology one, how do you see that even working?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Hmm, I trust the government because I don’t have a choice

It's my understanding that the Arab spring was partially possible because of social media like Twitter which allowed organized protests against the government.

Another huge problem with real names is internet creeps doxxing women. If teens go to extraordinary effort to uncover the real names of people like Boxxy, then there would be a huge increase in online stalking if getting a real name was trivial.

As to Jerry watching your instance, a volunteer doing Lemmy as a hobby means there would likely be huge security lapses as time goes on and Jerry can't keep up with maintenance because of work/family obligations.

If you think real names are useful, then you could post your name and address right now instead of using a handle. It would be the start of a real name movement that is opt in instead of forced.

(The reason for name and address is to identify the unique John Smith from the other John Smith's. Otherwise people with common names keep their anonymity and people with unusual names are identified. )