GNED 1403 Final

Anonymity on the Internet is a tough issue to discuss, as there are various different aspects to it.  Over the last 10 years, the Internet was notoriously known for anonymity because anyone can be anyone on the Internet.  Today, social media is pushing anonymity away, for example, Facebook encourages using your real name and as of recently, YouTube has been encouraging their users to switch from their usernames to their real names.  Within the last 15 years, Internet usage has increased exponentially and with that, no real manual on how to use it.  In short, an exponential number of people being able to access the Internet, where there are no enforced rules or regulations – is a setup for trouble.  Anonymity on the Internet, allows people to express their opinions openly on public forums, which is a good thing, but it can also lead to racial, homophobic, sexist, and even bullying and criminal comments. To combat this behaviour, online groups such as Anonymous, “out” people by exposing the identities of the individuals who are responsible for their comments.  In some extreme cases, personal information (i.e. home address, work address, personal e-mail) has been posted on public forums as a form of “corrective action”.  To a certain extent, I do believe that this “corrective action” should be taken against the inappropriate comments mentioned previously, however, I don’t believe that Anonymous’ actions of posting personal information on a public forum is the right form of “corrective action”. 

Corrective action taken by the group known as Anonymous, such as “outing” people for their inappropriate and ignorant comments isn’t always the right action to take. Revealing the identities of racists, sexists, or homophobes doesn’t change the fact that they posted inappropriate comments in the first place, by revealing their identities, it doesn’t change the values or personal views – it only changes whether or not they choose to post their opinions on public forums.  Not to mention that it ostracizes and puts them in the spotlight for receiving criticism, which leaves the open possibility to create an adverse situation or make the situation much worse than it had been originally. 

The underlying problem of public forums is the extent of freedom of speech.  In Canada, as well as, the United States we have the right to freedom of speech and it applies to online forums as well.  In context, we are allowed to express our opinions in any media form.  This is the same to those who make inappropriate posts and comments online, whether if it’s racist, sexist, or homophobic – it is their opinion and they are free to express it.  The question still remains though, if it’s appropriate or not for those types of opinions to be expressed on a public medium.  Inevitably, everyone will have different opinions on various topics due to different values, culture and religion – even though all of the opinions are different everyone has a right to it.  Limiting what people say on the Internet is taking their right to free speech away.  Personally, I don’t think these types of opinions belong on a public forum as they spread hate and inequality among the community but I also believe that everybody has the right to free speech.  There is a time and place for everything and for those certain topics it applies.

Corrective action in online forums is a specialty for Anonymous.  Anonymous forces people to comply with the values of what they think are right through blackmail or other devices.  The Kylie Kylem incident is a good example; bullies from Kylie’s school were making horrible remarks about how Kylie should kill herself.  This incident escalated to the point where Anonymous took interest in it.  Anonymous took it in their hands and compiled the identities of the bullies and threatened to send it to authorities.  Though through the corrective action of Anonymous, they were successful in making the cyber bullying to stop but through the means of blackmail.  Blackmail is not a means of corrective action, though Anonymous was successful in resolving the Kylie incident through blackmail – I don’t believe that it’s the solution that people should resort to in solving problems.

Today, cyber bullying has become an increasing problem on the Internet media platform.  The Internet has become very integrated in our daily lives thus children have been allowed access to it.  Children are very vulnerable and impressionable and if they are educated at a young age about Internet safety it could potentially prevent cyber bullying before it starts.  Even though this isn’t a counter measure to combat inappropriate comments on the Internet, it has the potential to prevent the younger generation from making such remarks.  Another way to potentially combat inappropriate comments on the Internet, is educating the public about different cultures and religions.  Making the general public more aware of what each others cultural and religious values are, would make people more tolerant and understanding of those values. 

Even though anonymity has given us the freedom to express ourselves, we must keep in mind the responsibility of the things we say.  For example, those who express their racial, sexist or homophobic opinions on an online forum,  must be conscience of criticism that they will receive from the online community.  Freedom of speech is a right that everyone has, but it shouldn’t be taken advantage of.  There is a time and place for everything, including freedom of speech.  Corrective action such as education is the most sound and peaceful resolution, unlike blackmail in which Anonymous resorts to using.  We all have the right to exercise our right to freedom of speech; we just need to be mindful of what we say in the current time and place.