Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Am I an exception?

This just in from Allen of New Zealand. He gave me hi full name and, as you'll see, his reason for wanting anonymity... Whatcha' think?


As one who regularly comments on blogs etc in my private life, but who must be perceived as neutral in my professional life, I generally use a pseudonym to make my comments.  I would not be able to make such contributions if I was forced to disclose my true identity.    Would Jules have me silenced?

However, anonymity must never be used as a shield to enable abuse, and irrespective of my pseudonym or my true name I would expect to be curtailed if I exercised such abuse.


Allan

2 comments:

  1. I think that there are many, many people who take this position and that if we weigh up the amount of abuse vs the amount of perfectly reasonable commenting/posting that comes from people using a pseudonym or posting anonymously the argument may be far less exaggerated as it appears from Jules' extreme examples.

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  2. Writer/Editor David Kernek in London asked me to post this:

    Jules,

    Congratulations on your great campaign. It's about time somebody got seriously angry about this. It's undoubtedly the very darkest side of the internet ... along with those sites telling kids how to make their own nuclear weapons!

    One of the advantages of print (one which we'll appreciate only when it's gone) is that it is by and large mediated and edited, notwithstanding the fact that some print media owners operate in ethics-free universes. No newspaper/magazine/book editor or publisher in their right mind would publish anonymously or otherwise the toxic crap that passes for free speech on websites.

    It certainly ain't what the Founding Fathers (yes, I know some of them were slave owners) had in mind when they framed the safeguards for a free press, neither is it the kind of free speech protected by English common law.

    Pressure has to be put on ISPs and webmasters to bin anonymous posts that are personally, racially or sexually abusive, and observe the defamation laws that exist in their jurisdictions.

    David Kernek,
    England.

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