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An anonymous post is an entry on a bulletin board system, Internet forum, or other discussion forums, without a screen name or more commonly by using a non-identifiable pseudonym. Some online forums do not allow such posts, requiring users to be registered either under their real name or utilizing a pseudonym. Some may allow anonymous posts, but discourage them by referring to such posters as “anonymous cowards”,[1] such as in the case of Slashdot and Techdirt. Others like JuicyCampus, AutoAdmit, 2channel, and other Futaba-based imageboards (such as 4chan) thrive on anonymity. Users of 4chan, in particular, interact in an anonymous and ephemeral environment that facilitates rapid generation of new trends.

History of online anonymity

Online anonymity can be traced to Usenet newsgroups in the late 1990s where the notion of using invalid emails for posting to newsgroups was introduced. This was primarily used for discussion on newsgroups pertaining to certain sensitive topics. There was also the introduction of anonymous remailers which were capable of stripping away the sender’s address from mail packets before sending them to the receiver. Online services which facilitated anonymous posting sprang up around mid-1992, originating with the cypherpunk group.[2]

The precursor to Internet forums like 2channel and 4chan were textboards like Ayashii World and Amezou World that provided the ability for anonymous posts in Japan. These “large-scale anonymous textboards” were inspired by the Usenet culture and were primarily focused on technology, unlike their descendents.[3]

Today, image boards receive tremendous internet traffic from all parts of the world. In 2011, on 4chan's most popular board, /b/, there were roughly 35,000 threads and 400,000 posts created per day. At that time, that level of content was on par with YouTube. Such high traffic suggests a broad demand from internet users for anonymous content sharing sites.[4]

Levels of anonymity

Anonymity on the Internet can pertain to both the utilization of pseudonyms or requiring no authentication at all (also called “perfect anonymity”) for posting on a website.[5] Online anonymity is also limited by IP addresses. For example, WikiScanner associates anonymous Wikipedia edits with the IP address that made the change and tries to identify the entity that owns the IP address. On other websites, IP addresses may not be publicly available, but they can be obtained from the website administrators only through legal intervention. They might not always be traceable to the poster.[6]

Techniques for anonymous posting

Utilizing pseudonyms allow people to post without revealing their real identity. Pseudonyms, however, are still prone to being tracked to the user's IP address.[7] To avoid being tracked to an IP address, it is possible to post via a public computer where the IP address would usually be under the purview of the public workspace such as a coffee shop, and hence cannot be traced to the individual user.[7]

Memes

Another way people are posting anonymously online is through the use of memes. One popular meme is the Confession Bear meme. People use Confession Bear to post everything from funny and embarrassing stories to very-troubled thoughts.[8]

Technology

There are services described as anonymizers which aim to provide users the ability to post anonymously by hiding their identifying information. Anonymizers are essentially proxy servers which act as an intermediary between the user who wants to post anonymously and the website which logs user information such as IP addresses. The proxy server is the only computer in this network which is aware of the user's information and provides its own information to anonymize the poster.[9] Examples of such anonymizers include I2P and Tor, which employ techniques such as onion and garlic routing to provide enhanced encryption to messages that travel through multiple proxy servers.[7]

Applications like PGP utilizing techniques like private-key and public-key encryptions are also utilized by users to post content in Usenet groups and other online forums.[10]

Main article: Doe subpoena

China

The revised draft of the Chinese government’s “Internet Information Services”[11] proposes that “Internet information service providers, including microblogs, forums, and blogs, that allow users to post information on the Internet should ensure users are registered with their real identities”.[12]

The Philippines

The Philippine government passed the Cybercrime Prevention Act on 12 September 2012, which among other things grants the Department of Justice the ability to “block access to ‘computer data’ that is in violation of the Act; in other words, a website hosting criminally libelous speech could be shut down without a court order”.[13]

United Kingdom

The UK government’s bill titled the “Defamation Bill”, proposed on May 10, 2012, seeks to allow website operators the ability to hand over information of posters who have posted an allegedly defamatory statement on the website.[14] The compliance seeks to provide hosts of an online community to escape libel claims as long as they agree to provide details of relatively anonymous posters upon request. The bill which is still under process has come under criticism for not being detailed enough to provide security to the more positive aspects of anonymous posting.[15]

United States

In the United States, the right to speak anonymously online is protected by the First Amendment and various other laws. These laws restrict the ability of the government and civil litigants to obtain the identity of anonymous speakers. The First Amendment says that ”Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”.[16] This protection has been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the right to speak anonymously offline.

For example, in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, the Supreme Court overturned an Ohio law banning the distribution of anonymous election pamphlets, claiming that an “author’s decision to remain anonymous … is an aspect of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment” and that “anonymous pamphleteering is not a pernicious, fraudulent practice, but an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent”, as well as a “shield” against the so-called tyranny of the majority.[17] Various courts have interpreted these offline protections to extend to the online world.[18]

Identifying the author of an anonymous post may require a Doe subpoena. This involves gaining access to the IP address of the poster via the hosting website. The courts can then order an ISP to identify the subscriber to whom it had assigned said IP address. Requests for such data are almost always fruitful, though providers will often effect a finite term of data retention (in accordance with the privacy policy of each—local law may specify a minimum and/or maximum term). The usage of IP addresses has, in recent times, been challenged as a legitimate way to identify anonymous users.[19]

On March 21, 2012, the New York State Senate introduced the bill numbered S.6779 (and A.8668) labeled as the “Internet Protection Act”. It proposes the ability of a website administrator of a New York–based website to take down anonymous comments unless the original author of the comment agrees to identify themselves on the post.[20]

Anonymous posting in online communities

Online communities vary with their stances on anonymous postings. Wikipedia allows anonymous editing in most cases but does not label users; instead, identifying them by their IP addresses, with other editors commonly referring to them with neutral terms such as “anons” or “IPs”.[21]

Many online bulletin boards require users to be signed to write—and, in some cases, even to read—posts. 2channel and other Futaba-based image boards take an opposite stance, encouraging the anonymity, and in the case of English-language Futaba-based websites, calling those who use usernames and tripcodes “namefags” and “tripfags”, respectively.[22] As required by law, even communities such as 4chan do require the logging of IP addresses of such anonymous posters.[citation needed] Such data, however, can only be accessed by the particular site administrator.

Slashdot discourages anonymous posting by referring to anonymous posters as anonymous coward. The mildly derogatory term is meant to chide anonymous contributors into logging in.[23][24]

Ramifications

Effects on users

The effects of posting online anonymously has been linked to the online disinhibition effect in users whilst been categorized into either benign or toxic disinhibition.[25] Disinhibition can result in misbehavior but can also improve user relationships. It may also result in greater disclosure among Internet users, allowing more emotional closeness and openness in a safe social context.[26]

Anonymous computer communication has also been linked to accentuate self-stereotyping.[27] Although it has been linked to notable effects in gender differences, only when the topic bears similarity and fits with the gender stereotype.[27]

Research has suggested that anonymous news comment sections are more susceptible to uncivil comments, especially those directed at other users. Anonymous news comment section users are also more likely to be impolite by either being sarcastic and casting aspersions.[28]

Effects on online communities

The conditions for deindividuation, such as “anonymity, reduced self-awareness, and reduced self-regulation”, fosters creations of online communities much in the same way that they might be employed offline.[29] This is evident in proliferation of communities such as Reddit or 4chan which utilize total anonymity or pseudonymity to provide its users the ability to post varied content. The effect of disinhibition has been seen to be beneficial in “advice and discussion threads by providing a cover for more intimate and open conversations”.[30]

The "ephemerality," or the short-lived nature, of the posts that exist on some anonymous image boards such as 4chan create a fast paced environment. As of 2009, threads on 4chan had a median lifespan of 3.9 minutes.[4]

There is also research suggesting that content that gets posted in such communities also tends to be more deviant in nature than would be otherwise.[31] The ability to post anonymously has also been linked to the proliferation of pornography in newsgroups and other online forums wherein users utilize sophisticated mechanisms such as mentioned in technology.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Anonymous Coward", September 13, 2011
  2. ^ Rigby, Karina, "Anonymity on the Internet Must Be Protected"
  3. ^ "Ayashii World"
  4. ^ a b Bernstein, Michael (2011). "4chan and/b: An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community". Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved 10/4/15. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  5. ^ Furukawa, Hideki,"Q&A With the Founder of Channel 2", The Online Journalism Review, August 22, 2008
  6. ^ "Just how do websites track or monitor our activity?"
  7. ^ a b c "A Technical Guide to Anonymous Blogging"
  8. ^ Vickery, Jacqueline Ryan (January 2, 2014). "The curious case of Confession Bear: the reappropriation of online macro-image memes". Information, Communication & Society. 17: 301–325. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2013.871056. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  9. ^ Confinet Ltd. "Anonymous Surfing", AnonIC.org, 2004
  10. ^ a b Mehta, Michael; Plaza, Dwaine (April 3, 1997). "Chapter 3: Pornography in Cyberspace: An Exploration of What's in Usenet". In Keisler, Sara (ed.). Culture of the Internet. Lawrence Eribaum Associates. pp. 53–69. ISBN 0805816364. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ "Internet Information Services (revised draft)", June 7, 2012
  12. ^ "China Proposes Strengthening Internet Guidelines", Reuters, June 7, 2012
  13. ^ Jillian C. York, "A Dark Day for the Philippines as Government Passes Cybercrime Act", Electronic Frontier Foundation, October 3, 2012
  14. ^ Defamation Bill 2012-13, May 10, 2012
  15. ^ Bill targeting internet 'trolls' gets wary welcome from websites, The Guardian, June 12, 2012
  16. ^ First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
  17. ^ McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, 514 U.S. 334 (1995).
  18. ^ See, e.g., Doe v. Cahill, 884 A.2d 451 (Del. 2005); Krinsky v. Doe 6, 159 Cal. App. 4th 1154 (2008).
  19. ^ Keith Wagstaff, "You Are Not an IP Address, Rules Judge", Time Magazine, May 7, 2012
  20. ^ New York State Senate Bill no. S.6779, March 21, 2012.
  21. ^ Dwight Silverman, "What's Online", Houston Chronicle, July 7, 2000, page 2.
  22. ^ Page, Lewis. "Anonymous hackers' Wikileaks 'infowar'". The Register. The Register. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ Stephen Shankland, "Andover.Net Scoops Up Seminal Slashdot Site", CNet News, June 29, 1999. (Stating that the term "Anonymous Coward" was popularized by Slashdot.)
  24. ^ Gosain, Sanjay (2003). "Looking through a Window on Open Source Culture". Systèmes d'Information et Management. 8 (1): 22.
  25. ^ Suler, John (2004). "The Online Disinhibition Effect". CyberPsychology & Behavior. 7 (3): 321–326. doi:10.1089/1094931041291295.
  26. ^ Ben-Ze'e v, Aaron (July 2003). "Privacy, emotional closeness, and openness in cyberspace". Computers in Human Behavior. 19 (4): 451–467. doi:10.1016/s0747-5632(02)00078-x.
  27. ^ a b Postmas; et al. (2002). "Behavior Online: Does Anonymous Computer Communication Reduce Gender Inequality?". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 28 (8): 1073–1083. doi:10.1177/01461672022811006.
  28. ^ Rowe, I. (2015). "Civility 2.0: a comparative analysis of incivility in online political discussion". Information, Communication & Society. 18 (2): 121–138. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2014.940365.
  29. ^ Myers, David (1987). ""Anonymity is Part of the Magic": Individual Manipulation of Computer-Mediated Communication Contexts". Qualitative Sociology. 10. Springer: 251–266. doi:10.1007/bf00988989.
  30. ^ Bernstein et al, "4chan and /b/: An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community"
  31. ^ Suler, John (2009). "The Bad Boys of Cyberspace: Deviant Behavior in a Multimedia Chat Community". CyberPsychology & Behavior. 1: 275–294. doi:10.1089/cpb.1998.1.275.
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