Give Me Liberty or Give Me 404: The Decline of Anonymity on the Internet

The ability to blend in with the crowd, to achieve a status of anonymity, is one of the defining elements of the internet.  Nearly two billion people have the choice to appear anonymous, to withhold their identities, to the other users of the internet which does not exist in any other place in the world. For several years, lawmakers try to eliminate this ability to curb internet harassment, among other reasons. With this option under threat, some internet users petitioned against what they believe an infringement on their rights. Whatever the outcome, these next few years will be quite turbulent for this age of information.

Lawmakers opposed against internet anonymity argued that anonymity only encourages bad behavior on the internet. The argument stems from the timeless statement, “If you are doing nothing wrong, you should not worry”.  In their opinion, users have and will abuse their anonymity to harm other users. According to these lawmakers, cyberbullying on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter prove this. Those issues caused major ripples in the media for years and lawmakers believe they found the solution to stop it. They believe that can stop the many suicides that occur from such harassment. However, that belief presents some clear flaws.

Laws that limit the countless users of the internet do not actually solve the problem.  The actions of a few should not determine something that could radically change the internet. Instead stronger deterrents should be passed, stronger deterrents that target cyberbullies who cause the suffering that lawmakers want to stop. Taking away the privacy that many users value may end up causing more problems, allowing stalkers an easier way of finding personal data or simply violating our ability to efficiently use the internet. Some users just do not want to deal with their names linked to their profiles on internet sites and feel like that removes privacy which users value highly on the internet.

In conclusion, the opponents’ means to stop cyberbullying . Stripping away the privacy will harm the internet and plenty of users are cunning enough to bypass any restrictions lawmakers may place. Any action that binds users will have some negative consequence and thus, there must be protest against it.

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