Anonymity

One could make the case, as I will try to here, that social media has created our current caustic social climate. But it is not just the media that is the message, it is that a great deal of this discourse is anonymous. Thus, people can and do say vile things without the chance of recourse.

I, against my wife’s wishes, always use my full name when posting a blog ... or commenting on  another’s. Yes, I leave myself open to retaliation, but I strongly believe that, if I say something, I should be willing to stand behind it. I refuse to be a faceless Internet troll ... like many too many others.

Much of the dangerous and hateful conduct that takes place on the Internet or Dark Web exists behind a wall of pseudonyms or that annoying “Anonymous.” I even believe that many of the problems on our social media would disappear if it were decreed that every last bit of interaction could quickly and easily be attributed to a particular person at a particular URL location ... and covering up these matters could have consequences.

Maybe this is one, if even a partial solution, Congress should look at to rein in big tech? It is big tech, after all, that allows ... even encourages ... this anonymity to occur.