Seemingly, anonymity through the internet and other forms of media has become increasingly common, many people praising it.
These people always note the “newfound” “freedom of expression” when praising such a luxury.
Jacob Palm defines anonymity when he says that it “means that the real author of a message is not shown. Anonymity can be implemented to make it impossible or very difficult to find out the real author of a message”.
What is also common is pseudonymity, where a fake name is used.
Many better prefer anonymity over pseudonymity because, since an advantage is that one can usually correspond with the pseudonym (without knowing the real face behind the mask) and also know if more than one piece of writing is done by the same person, they are sometimes able to put pieces of information together from each message and all of the writings and then figure out the real person.
All anonymity is lost.
Some people argue that there are good sides to anonymity over the internet. Some people live in places run by politically repressive groups, and they use anonymity to display their views without being prosecuted. In well-run democracies, we have anonymous ballots, so that citizens do not feel pressured to vote for one candidate when they’d prefer to vote for another. They could vote for one and then tell everyone that they voted for the other, and there’s no way to be caught in the lie.
Those who are supporters of anonymity link it to freedom and democracy. They feel that it allows them to be brutally honest, something that might not be done without it. But the problem is that anonymous sources are often unreliable, and they can easily be used to spread propaganda and false information.
But one must ask, if certain views cannot be linked to one’s face, are they really worth supporting?
Food for thought.
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Nina S is a student, freelance journalist, museum worker, and blogger. She lives in the D.C. area. You can find more of her work, concentrating on lifestyle, literature, and culture, at http://pagefortheculturefreak.blogspot.com/
