FC: LA Times columnist wants it to "be harder to be anonymous" online

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Thu May 02 2002 - 05:44:41 PDT

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    Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 21:47:20 -0500 (CDT)
    From: William Knowles <wkat_private>
    To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private>
    Subject: Privacy vs. anonymity on the Web
    Organization: C4I.org - http://www.c4i.org
    
    http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/3170530.htm
    
    By John Balzar
    Tue, Apr. 30, 2002
    
    [...]
    
    Legitimate announcements and news stories are hijacked from Web sites
    and rewritten by anonymous mischief makers. Once in the vapors of the
    Web, a stink arose when my byline was circulated over a fabricated
    story about the president of the United States being a child molester.
    
    The creative geniuses who have given us the Web still insist that
    anonymity is one of its cornerstones. If so, the foundation is wormy.
    The longer that Web-heads insist on anonymity, the more the
    credibility and usefulness of their creation will be undermined.
    Already, one of the first lessons taught in middle-school computer
    labs is to regard everything on the Web as you might a puff adder --
    apt to bite you at any moment. Is this the best we can expect from the
    information revolution?
    
    So instead of worrying ourselves silly about ways to protect these few
    who are afraid to stand up for their words and actions, we should be
    going in the other direction: making it harder to be anonymous,
    marginalizing those who try.
    
    We may never humanize the automobile, but we can the future -- by
    tearing down those barriers that shield us from each other and tempt
    us to be our worst.
    
    
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    John Balzar is a Los Angeles Times columnist.
    
    
    
    
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