The matter of anonymity in forums and blogs on the internet has been occupying my mind of late. The opportunity for millions to share ideas and speak their minds is a wonderful gift people’s enjoy in democratically governed jurisdictions and I am thankful to live in a technological era where it is possible. But too often, those speaking their minds use the anonymity of the internet to hide while saying things they never would, were their names to be attached. Stupid things, irresponsible things, even criminal things.
The Obama transition came up with the idea of a citizens briefing book in which anyone logging on the website would submit advise to the incoming president. On the day i visited the site, the first suggest for the president-elect was “kill all the white people”. Now that was really helpful advice. Would the idiot who posted it be so bold if his name and place of residence was appended?
Newspapers require the authors of letters to the editor to provide contact information so that their identity can be verified before any letters are printed. Many of the same newspapers have open forums on their websites where anyone and everyone can comment on the news anonymously. The result is not pretty. Why do these newspapers not exercise the same standards on-line as for their print editions?
The Liberal Party of Canada has created an on-line forum, en famille where policy issues and party reform are being debated vigourously. Screen names can be used, but everyone registering to participate has to provide a name and address that can be verified against the lists of paid party members. It’s no surprise that the quality of posts is higher by far than it is in anonymous forums.
This morning an anonymous reader wanted to comment on my post about Jack Layton. Claiming to be a Liberal from Ottawa who would be campaigning for the NDP in the next federal election, s/he provided no identification except for an obviously misrepresenting photograph (unless, by all appearances, the writer was a Liberal who served as an intern in Prime Minister King’s first government). The language in the comment suggested the author, more likely, is a NDP member and/or staffer. Lacking the fortitude to identify her/himself, the comments went up in a puff of electrons.
As of today, I have added a note to exaro. Henceforth, anonymous comments will not be published. A Blogger/Google ID will not suffice if the linked profile does not provide credible identification.
Moreover, exaro will not link to anonymous blogs and I will give unsigned posts in on-line forums the attentions and credence they deserve. With the time I save reading same, I hope I will be able to improve the quality of exaro.
I hope readers will join me in encouraging the demise of the anonymous vitriol which is too much a part of the web.
UPDATE 2009/02/02
The feedback on this post was 50:50 in-favour:opposed. Unfortunately, none of those who commented in support of identification included their own information in their Blogger profiles (exaro runs on the Blogger platform) and only one opposed passed the “ID test”.
