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I think the core issue is the partial allowance for anonymity. I don't want to come across as saying an internet without any anonymity would be a better place
by munk-a 5y ago
I think the core issue is the partial allowance for anonymity. I don't want to come across as saying an internet without any anonymity would be a better place - I'm quite on the fence and I can see clear problems at both extremes... but if that haters had their anonymity also revoked then I think it'd have a chilling effect on how much hate speech people are willing to put out there.
If you are a notable public figure that calls out election fraud without much to back it up you might face removal from professional organizations or other loss of opportunity but your fame will be enough to crowd fund your continued comfortable lifestyle. If you're a pleb that does the same thing, and gets caught, you'll feel the full force of the law and while some doors in life might open to you out of shared sympathy a lot more doors are going to be closed either over an opposing view point or simply not wanting to pull someone who may be volatile again into close proximity of your company. So I think if anonymity was withdrawn from the internet a lot of these small fry folks would be a lot more cautious about throwing hate speech out so casually since it could significantly impact their lives - and hateful organizations would have a harder time recruiting and growing since people would be a lot more motivated to keep a pleasant outward appearance up. I think there's a fair amount of proof in this from how much more extreme the elderly tend to get as keeping up appearances to maintain your income gets removed from consideration.
And, as mentioned above, there are a whole lot of negatives that come along with removing anonymity - again, I don't know what the right answer here is, I just see that there are obviously problems on each end.
- zozbot234 5y ago> haters had their anonymity also revoked then I think it'd have a chilling effect on how much hate speech people are willing to put out there. This is empirically falsified. Look at the stuff people write on Facebook - lack of anonymity is no barrier. There are of course people who are expected to "keep up appearances", but they're a rare and self-selected bunch.
- munk-a 5y agoI believe the amount of crap on Facebook actually is reduced from the stuff on places like 4chan... but I also believe that the existence of 4chan empowers people to act out in other parts of the internet because "But Timmy is getting an ice cream" - I'm not certain if there is a term for internally rationalized what-about-ism but I think that's a factor.