Susan Krashinsky, in today’s edition of The Globe and Mail, assesses the wane of online anonymity, especially with attention to a couple of recent legal precedents in the USA and UK. While the notion that diminished anonymity is connected somehow to the increased popularity of online social media doesn't really ring true with me, the fact that the more people act irresponsibly online, the more legal cases there will be which will set legal precedents that slowly strip away the whatever protection the libellers thought they had. That will be a good thing.
I’ve never had a problem with pseudonyms on forums where users trade information that may be a mixture of fact and opinion. If I’m in a travel forum seeking information about hotels or resorts, I don’t want every reader to know I’m planning to be out of the country and that my house can be burglarized more easily. An anonymous identity is harmless and acceptable. Such forums usually have monitors who can delete inappropriate and/or libellous content and, in extreme cases, ban offenders and delete all their posts. Users quickly learn to ignore certain posters whose contributions are consistently worthless. When a hotel has consistent and balanced good reviews and one calling it “a vacation hell” – well we know the problem rests more with the single reviewer than the hotel and we ignore the comments.
Blogging tends to be different. It’s online publishing and the authors need to be aware that it is no different from writing a book or newspaper opinion piece - except there is no external editor or publisher. Previously it was a case of say stupid, libellous things and an editor will intervene; it would never make it to publication. Now, when we blog, we are our own publisher, so we need to be our own editor as well.
The Globe quotes Catherine Macmillan author of Small Dead Animals, a political blog; “I figured if my views were worth sharing, it’s worth attaching my identity to them. It’s also a way to self-police. If you know your writing can be attached to you, you make more than a superficial attempt to manage your content appropriately.” It’s advice more bloggers, as well as readers, should heed. The blogs I tend to read are by authors whose identity is easily confirmed, even if a pseudonym is used.
I support whistle-blower laws to protect individuals who feel compelled to reveal illegal and/or inappropriate happenings at the workplace or wherever. In these cases, third parties will investigate and assess the situation before irreparable harm is done to those accused of wrongdoing.
A virtual end to online anonymity? Probably, it’s a bit premature to make such a declaration, but just maybe, things are moving in the right direction.
