Anonymous Blogger on the Verge of Being Unmasked
I think this article brings up a lot of questions and issues surrounding information and control, especially with regard to anonymity and the Internet. I like the anonymity the Internet affords — I don’t know if other people hate it when they are purchasing something and people ask what it’s for (this tends to happen a lot at craft stores, in my experience), but I really do — a lot of times I just want to buy my jump rings and go home without discussing what I’m going to do with them. The Internet means I can just order them and skip the human interaction altogether. Or that I could look up information I potentially don’t want anyone to know I’m looking for, or that I could seek advice about a problematic situation at work rather than having to go to a manager, or any number of other things.
But some of the anonymity afforded by the Internet makes me question whether certain things should be controlled and if/how it would be possible to control.
This particular blogger may have their identity revealed as they used information to encourage the harassment of a couple not only online, but offline, reporting sightings of the couple to the site. In this case, a lawsuit resulted. But I wonder about smaller-scale examples; websites like People of Walmart or Look at this F-ing Hipster (each contain strong language; be forewarned), where photographs of people are posted without their knowledge or consent. If you discover a photograph of yourself on a site like this, how do you go about getting it taken down? Can you? How can you possibly control that sort of content?
