Facebook's Randi Zuckerberg: Anonymity Online 'Has To Go Away'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/27/randi-zuckerberg-anonymity-online_n_910892.html

Zuckerberg, who is Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's sister, argued that putting an end to anonymity online could help curb bullying and harassment on the web.

"I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away," she said during a panel discussion on social media hosted Tuesday evening byMarie Clairemagazine. "People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. … I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel like they can say whatever they want behind closed doors."

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidthas also made this suggestion, calling online anonymity "dangerous" and predicting that governments will eventually "demand" that people use their names for all online activity.Huffington Post

I, personally, do not like the idea of this at all. Things that force someone to attach their real name to their opinions tend to restrict free discussion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/27/randi-zuckerberg-anonymity-online_n_910892.html

I, personally, do not like the idea of this at all. Things that force someone to attach their real name to their opinions tend to restrict free discussion.

games5522

I agree. Anonymity is crucial to free speech.

What's funny is that most of the people who carry out this cyberbullying are teenage girls who generally use facebook to do so.

Of course someone with strong ties to Facebook would be saying this. JML897

if it happened at least it would stop the psychopaths on the internet who threaten people, there are a lot of crazy people on youtube.hadoken

wow not at all what a dumb idiot

I hope Anonymous attacks Facebook for their ignorant assertions.Nibroc420

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"]I hope Anonymous attacks Facebook for their ignorant assertions.games5522

[QUOTE="games5522"][QUOTE="Nibroc420"]I hope Anonymous attacks Facebook for their ignorant assertions.Nibroc420

I hope Anonymous attacks Facebook for their ignorant assertions.Nibroc420

Dammit, there goes my relentless trolling, now everything will have my real name attached to it.

/sarcasm

I think she's confusing lack of anonymity with an artificial sense of community.

Even if the internet had either of these things bullies would still exist. Thankfully.

What a silly thing to say. Anonymity just makes it so insults don't really do anything. At all. It's when you get actual names, affiliations and connections involved that the internet suddenly becomes something dangerous. The more anonymous you are on the internet the better.Ace6301

[QUOTE="games5522"]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/27/randi-zuckerberg-anonymity-online_n_910892.html

I, personally, do not like the idea of this at all. Things that force someone to attach their real name to their opinions tend to restrict free discussion.

airshocker

I agree. Anonymity is crucial to free speech.

If that's true, then it's not really Free Speech now, is it?

The idea of free speech is being able to OPENLY speak your mind without fear of retribution.

If you have to hide behind an IP address to speak your mind, it's not free speech.

(Not saying we need to get rid of anonyminity, just saying that Free Speech should not be dependent on it.)

I think the only place where being anonymous needs to be preserved is government websites (for questions, complaints, whistle-blowing, etc). I don't think people who challenge the government should have it in the back of their mind that they can be persecuted. For all other places, I'd say it's up to the company running the site.

[QUOTE="airshocker"]

[QUOTE="games5522"]

I, personally, do not like the idea of this at all. Things that force someone to attach their real name to their opinions tend to restrict free discussion.

Netherscourge

I agree. Anonymity is crucial to free speech.

If that's true, then it's not really Free Speech now, is it?

The idea of free speech is being able to OPENLY speak your mind without fear of retribution.

If you have to hide behind an IP address to speak your mind, it's not free speech.

(Not saying we need to get rid of anonyminity, just saying that Free Speech should not be dependent on it.)

Cyber bullying only happens because people go back to their computers. Online allows you to strictly select who and when you communicate.

Given facebook's lack of privacy features, I'd say she and her brother are putting forth their best effort.

Anonymity also allows for no consequence's to your actions. I'm under the belief that true Anonymity doesn't really exist on the Internet; if it did people wouldn't receive emails from their ISP's telling them to stop illegal downloading and the police wouldn't show up at somebodies house for looking at child pornography. If all Anonymity went away you wouldn't see as much trash and garbage on the internet as people would be less quick to act out of line when their personal image is on the line.

That being said it also has it's disadvantages to.

Blah. i don't care for that notion. The internet would be boring if there was no anonymity.

funny how I can say just about anything I want in public (where it has real impact) and still keep my name private, but the second I go online the entire world would know my name and, if Bookface has anything to do with it, my appearance and relationship status.

This is entirely bogus.

Privacy is one of the few luxuries that is A.) free, and B.) we humans have control over, but in this modern world it is disappearing at an alarming rate. The only two places I feel I have true privacy is when I go to take a crap or shower, or when I am in my room alone. THe latter is soon to disappear.

funny how I can say just about anything I want in public (where it has real impact) and still keep my name private, but the second I go online the entire world would know my name and, if Bookface has anything to do with it, my appearance and relationship status.

This is entirely bogus.

Privacy is one of the few luxuries that is A.) free, and B.) we humans have control over, but in this modern world it is disappearing at an alarming rate. The only two places I feel I have true privacy is when I go to take a crap or shower, or when I am in my room alone. THe latter is soon to disappear.

mrbojangles25

yup, they need to just get it over with and stick a computer chip in us so they can monitor our every move... heh, its getting to that point. i aint gonna do it i tell ya.

I love the irony of somebody from Facebook saying that internet anonymity has gone too far...

That being said, this reminds me of when Blizzard Entertainment wanted to implement RealID onto their forums (I'm pretty sure it had something to do with a partnership with Facebook come to think of it...), which basically would display posters' names next to their avatars. The Community Managers went on and on about how just knowing somebody's name wouldn't jeopardize them. After all, it's only a name. So one of the posters dared a Community Manager to post his first and last name. He did so and within ten minutes, that poster had his name, address, phone number, marital status, and basically all his personal information. The concept of RealID never went through due to the massive negative backlash, and for good reason.

People will be jerks online with or without their names displayed. The only thing real names will allow is ease of stalking and harrasment for people who before could only tell you to kill yourself.

While I agree anonymity can lead to trolling, there's also a level of Honesty you won't get from meeting the real person.

Totally against this. Avoid the website that you are being bullied on. That simple.

I would rather see Facebook go away than anonymity.kuraimen

[QUOTE="kuraimen"]I would rather see Facebook go away than anonymity.soulless4now

If you're being bullied online, you might do well to turn off the computer.SolidSnake35