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What If: No Social Media Anonymity (Edit) (infosec.pub)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/technology

77 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Question for the masses because I'm curious:

What do you think social media would be like if there was no anonymity?

Is it fair to say some people behave differently online because of anonymity?

Would it be good or bad if everything you posted could be tied back to you by your friends, family, employer, etc?

Some obvious concerns people express:

personal safety
freedom to express views contrary to community, government, etc without retaliation
fear of stigmas related to support, education, etc for stigma topics like mental health, sexuality, etc

What reasons do you have for not wanting to own your online identity other than being able to talk trash without being identified? Some people are public and still talk a lot of trash, looking at you Twitter.

You you got doxed, what do you think the impact would be just related to social media conduct?

Edit: With the introduction of online protections for minors, how does that affect the question?

Not from a political standpoint but from a technology one, how do you see that even working?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That is super interesting. Not getting into the politics, Security Now podcast recently discussed two US child protection online related initiatives.

From a technical perspective, I imagine it being difficult to both handle age proof, guardian proofing, and dealing with lack of anonymity. Part of why I posed the question.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Precisely. The national ID number itself was easily to spoof using a simple formula, but the difficult part was actual the "adult" verification, which I presume it was done by consulting a government database with actual citizen info. It was very easy to leak, and it did leak a lot.