Scaling API-first â The story of a global engineering organization
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Online anonymity
1. âAssessing the value of
anonymous communication
onlineâ
Robert Bodle, PhD (USC)
Associate Professor of Communication and New
Media Studies, College of Mount St. Joseph
5. Insights
-anonymity instrumental in organizing protest
-human lives at risk
-online anonymity more difficult to achieve due to a fixed
user identity ecosystem
6. Fixed user identity ecosystem
Real Name Only Policy:
âImpersonating anyone or
anything is not permitted.â
âEssentially, we are moving beyond
the point of no returnâ (Solis, 2010)
7. Defining anonymity online
Basic conditions â
1) an anonymous action is not linkable to
someoneâs identity
2) two anonymous actions by the same person, are
not linkable to each other (Clarke, Gauvin, Adams,
2009)
Or, ânonidentifiability by virtue of noncoordinatability of
traitsâ (Wallace, 2008).
8. Facebook coordinates our traits
mashups
widgets
social games
social plug-ins
The âLikeâ button
9. A culture of sharing . . .
Sharing one's 'social graph'
10. One condition - ID is attached
Why?
Safety?
Civility?
Market incentive?
âEssentially, we are moving beyond
the point of no returnâ (Solis, 2010)
11. Facebook claims real names =
safety
âWhen everyone uses their real first and last
names, people can know who they're
connecting with. This helps keep our community
safe.â
âWe take the safety of our community very
seriously. That's why we remove fake accounts
from the site as we find them.â (Facebook Help
Center)
12. the most vulnerable people are far
LESS safe when identifiable
-a dissident who fears imprisonment, torture, and death
-a gay teen who wants to reach out online without fear of
their family finding out
-a whistleblower who fears retribution
-a person of faith who could be subject to religious
persecution
-a battered wife seeking shelter
-a parent who wants their child to navigate safely online
13. âThe Civilizing Effectâ of real
names
âPeople behave a lot better
when they have their real
names downâ - Randi
Zuckerberg, Marketing
Director of Facebook.
14. âThe Civilizing Effectâ of real
names
The connection between
civility and use of real
names is refuted by recent
studies on use of
pseudonyms online (Boniel-
Nissam & Barak, 2011;
Cho, 2011; Disqus, 2012).
15. Double edged attributes of
anonymity
The same attributes that have antisocial
outcomes also have beneficial ones . . .
â˘Minimizes accountability
â˘Disinhibition
â˘Deindividuation
17. Disinhibition
stupid, abusive, vile, hateful, dishonest speech
uninhibited public opinion
experimentation
intimacy
honest self disclosure
therapeutic value
âAnonymity is authenticityâ
(Poole aka âMootâ 2011)
18. Deindividuation Effects
antinormative
behavior
group norms
community ID
high participation
Anonymous Collective Action
19. Human rights dimensions of
anonymity
Anonymity supports fundamental
freedoms and rights online
â˘Privacy
â˘Right to assemble
â˘Freedom of expression
20. Democratic Rights and Freedoms
Anonymity enables political
expression that is âuninhibited,
robust, and wide-openâ (Supreme
Court Justice Brennan, NY Times
v. Sullivan, 1960)
And . . .
âProtection from the tyranny of the
majorityâ (de Tocqueville 1835)
The authors used the pseudonym "Publius"
21. Democratic Rights and Freedoms
First Amendment protection of
anonymous communication
tolerates offensive speech to
allow for robust political debate,
including . . .
âdifferences of opinion, scathing
dissent, and the risk of disorderâ
(Bollinger, 2009).
22. Protect rights and freedoms online
and offline
Demand social media sites, services
provide:
-privacy
-pseudonyms
-anonymity
-freedom from surveillance
With global implications . . .
23. Thank you for your attention.
robert_bodle@mail.msj.edu
http://twitter.com/robertbodle
24. âAssessing the value of
anonymous communication
onlineâ
Robert Bodle, PhD (USC)
Associate Professor of Communication and New
Media Studies, College of Mount St. Joseph