

Breaking anonymity to fight trolls - akharris
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/opinion/30zhuo.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

======
frobozz
FTA: "Some may argue that denying Internet users the ability to post
anonymously is a breach of their privacy and freedom of expression. But until
the age of the Internet, anonymity was a rare thing. When someone spoke in
public, his audience would naturally be able to see who was talking."

According to the author, we have gone straight from preliterate society to
online, entirely bypassing a time in which one could publish a book under a
nom-de-plume; write a letter to be published in a newspaper or magazine, with
"name and address withheld"; or print flyers anonymously.

Even without printing presses, we've long been able to express our opinions
with nothing but an unverified forename, via the medium of radio talkshows.

She also disregards the fundamental interconnectedness of ones actions on the
internet today. If I chose to physically stand on a soapbox and broadcast my
opinions in the preliterate fashion she describes, I could still maintain my
anonymity by doing this in a town where no one knows who I am. This is not the
case if I have to use my real, verified name everywhere on the Internet.

There are plenty of people (e.g. Teachers and Civil Servants), people who
trade on their impartiality; for whom the exercise of free speech under their
own name is difficult. Expressing partisanship, or even a view on a
contentious issues, may jeopardise their careers, or at least make life a bit
difficult.

------
silverlake
I thought this problem was solved 20 years ago. I recall using Emacs GNUS with
a collaborative filtering system to remove trolls from my view of Usenet.
Maybe an internet scale kill file would help?

