Facebook Exec: Online Anonymity Must Go Away

Chaonici writes "The EFF has a blog post about what appears to be Facebook's stance on anonymity on the Internet. Speaking last week at a social media conference hosted by Marie Claire magazine, Facebook's Marketing Director, Randi Zuckerburg, is quoted: 'I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away. People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel like they can say whatever they want behind closed doors.' This position appears to apply to the entire Internet, not just Facebook (which already requires that its users post real names instead of pseudonyms). The EFF goes on to point out how this would be a bad choice for civil liberties online."

Re:Thus spoke Ben

[Talderas]

Publius: John Jay, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton

I don't think it has anything to do with that

[Moraelin]

Actually, I find that whenever someone is telling you to give up your rights for your own good, it's not really safety they have in mind. Usually they're just trying to shaft you somehow, but they can't just say "bend over and squeal like a pig, I'm gonna make big money out of shafting you peons." So they have to pack it in some idiocy about how it's for your own good.

Applies to everything from 10'th century warlords promising you protection if you just put your thumbprint here and sell yourself into serfdom, to politicians, to the likes of Zuckerburg.

In his case, it's not even hard to see why. I mean, really, you could summarize the summary as "Guy who gets his money by selling your data to marketers, says your right to privacy has got to go. Reaches for the standard 'it's to protect you from other pricks' canned excuse. Film at 11." Well, whop-de-do. Big surprise that he wants that, eh?

Re:Thus spoke Ben

[betterunixthanunix]

Funny, because Ben Franklin published a book anonymously, "Abridgment of the Book of Command Prayer." Anonymity was probably easier to achieve back then, since forensic science was not developed and one could send anonymous letters or publish pseudonymous articles in newspapers.

Re:Thus spoke Ben

[dkleinsc]

In Ben's day, anonymity like this wasn't possible.

Oh yes it was: Common Sense was published anonymously, and authorship of the Federalist Papers was kept quite secret until Alexander Hamilton's death.

Re:turn that frown upside down.

[PhxBlue]

Is that anonymous ONLINE person running his own fiber, or is he relying on Corporate people to handle the "online" part for him? Guess corporations are good for something, after all.

Yeah -- they're good for siphoning off the federal tax money they got to lay that fiber and sitting on it. Nice try, troll.