Anonymity Of The Net

[Apadizamek]

This week Forbes magazine released a article about anonymity of the internet. It told a the stories of several people hurt by the anonymous internet gangster.

The first one was about a family who's daughter borrowed her fathers Porsche and drove into a telephone pole at one hundred miles an hour, she was killed instantly so when the police took photo's of the scene they also took photo's of the corpse (I assume they'd get her to medical aid before snapping some shots if she was alive). Somehow the photo's were leaked onto the internet and from then on a large (in their opinion) web drama appeared, essentially people took the photo's and as some of the Internet Community posted them everywhere and made fun of the girl calling her a "spoiled rich brat who deserved it." That was the main story.

Some others included a business recruiter who's name and everything was used in a blog insulting her and potentially truly hurting her career, another was of a blogger who had photo's of her edited and posted everywhere which turned into a storm of finding everything about her including her Social Security Number.

Anonymity on the net has always been a concern for people, whats gonna happen when you get a enormous number of the worlds population just talking in anonymity? Sure there are causes for problems but sometimes people read into them too much, I would wager money that a large percentage of the people talking about "The glories of Pedophilia" as was said in the article that most of them have not actually molested a child.

The net allows people to make your own "persona" you might be a hardened badass or maybe a spoiled rich kid with an obsession with watches ( ) some of it may be true, but I'd bet a large majority of it is a mix between creative fiction and real life. Now onto some of the points of the article they interviewed were big wigs in the designing of the internet and they said that freedom of speech should be protected as long as it doesn't hurt anyone.

Now that statement seems hypocritical to me seeing as lets take the Photo's of the dead daughter, are they hurting the family? Yes of course but not psychically just emotionally and frankly nearly anything and everything that someone truly loves will be hurt by that. When a Holocaust survivor walks by a Nazi rally, won't (s)he be hurt by the memories and suffering (s)he suffered at the hands of that form of ideology? Yes of course but you wouldn't find it in your rights to tell them that they have to stop their rally, Freedom of speech and thought is a basic principle of my countries and a large number of other countries basic principles.

Also the amount of online users who would actually be that cruel is really a small percentage, sure you'll have the youtube comment or the SGW message telling you that your a bad person, a nerd, or that the sender w1ll r4p3 y0ur f4m1ly. Now the daughters photo's are a sad case of the internet gone wrong, but honestly most people would actually just think that in the privacy of their own home. Essentially what your asking is that you be able to live in quiet indifference unknowing of people's true thoughts. Now of course them posting photo's of their dead daughter is terrible to the extreme but what are they going to do if they find the people? Sue them? the likelihood of those people being anything but your average joe working in the cubicle or some teenager looking for laughs is high and more then likely this will only spur more attacks on the family.

Now the article did say some good things such as in Zimbabwe the internet helps people complain about the government and with the anonymity it gives their able to avoid the punishment, death, by the government. As for the blogger woman if you put your real name, register the website in your name your gonna have problems, its the way of life. Essentially what people are asking in that article is to say whats on their mind to a public audience and not receive any haters. My only question to them is, would you state the same opinions in a loud speaker in time square? Probably not.

Any opinions? I'm sorry I'd link the article but sadly forbes requires online membership to view articles, if anyone does and wants to copy and paste it please feel free.

[Come_Forth]

If we had to use real names on the internet it would collapse, the internet gives people an opportunity to be a new person or express their true views which they might not be able to do in rl.

[Fear Of The Duck]

because some fella has recently stabbed his partner with a kitchen knife and then killed himself shall we ban all kitchen knives?

[semper]

lol...hahaha...i love stoires like this..( i do actually have some sort of problem..i smile at terrible terrible things..and find them strangely amusing.) Well lets see. I dont mind about the internet. Im generally honest with everyone about everything about ME, though I twist things and other stories to manipulate and control very often. Im not different on the net then I am in real life, im just generally different to everyone else, following my own desires, not a crowd, which far to many people do these days.

Many people around here know my real name, and without much effort could find out where I lived. The dark secrets that can threaten me on a big scale have no evidence of their existence other then what exists in my own mind, which is impenetrable. Things that not my best friend, his brother or my family know. That is how i was brought up by my grandparents, and they are right, you cannot trust anyone, because you dont know people, you never do. People are fools. They tell others that cannot be trusted to much when they dont want it to be known, or they trust them in any way. A perfect example is lending people your stuff on online internet games. Ive seen many a person bent over backwards because they have trusted the wrong person.

Then of course, when things escape by accident, like the crash..(hehehe.. see! who else actually found that amusing!? Moral behind that story, dont be a tit in a porsche.) All you have to do is just think, well the people who actually matter know different, so why should I care what a bunch of sad misfits with nothing better to do think?

Obviously when the girls future prospects were developed, then it becomes serious. Though the information to hurt her, should not have been so readily available, not to mention, I doubt the person who made the blog just did it for the sake of it, there are very few people who do things like that. So she quite possibly may have deserved it.

Finally the pictures and the identification of her national security number, what the hell? firstly, how do you find out someones NSN..thats some major hacking or some major idiot. Firstly, some pictures posted around the internet, well that risk comes with posting ANY pictures on the net, its a risk anyone takes, one people should be aware of, and unfortunately one that is obviously very real. But well, its just tuff cookies aint it. There is nothing you can do but object, and make sure you, yourself are ontop of the situation, combating it.

lol..in the words of Dr Kelsow and Dr Cox. People are B*stard covered B*stards with a B*stard chewy centre. And you should never expect the best of people.

[Fear Of The Duck]

omg!!! i posted some pics of me on the net!!!
good no one knows me real name....

[semper]

lol...hey..you might not mind the publicity! Certainly a conversation starter. Do you remember a few years back those nude pictures of that really cool guy going around on the internet.....

[Fear Of The Duck]

ya mean spacey's???

[semper]

noo..lol..i was saying that that could be your ice breaker.. tis a bit confusing..

[Fear Of The Duck]

ahh...
*goes off to ask that question to the spanish girl living upstairs*

[semper]

lol..i tried it before..but she just said "do you mean the bloke I was with." so i sorta took a minute to get my bearings..