It looks so easy to post something on social networks that can be disturbing to some people. Freedom of speech or freedom of expression is considered sacrosanct by civilized society. What is not so obvious, and not universally accepted though, is that Freedom of Expression is a right of a person, who is not afraid of owning up what the person expresses in public domain. On one extreme, in the United States, the right to speak anonymously online is protected by the First Amendment and various other laws. On the other extreme, the revised draft of the Chinese government’s “Internet Information Services” 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”. It is pertinent to note here that recently Facebook had to apologize to certain communities for implementing the “Real name policy” by the word and deleting several accounts based on a complaint from another user. It appears that they intend to allow “Commonly used names” in place of legal names. It is not clear how the policy would be implemented. I am not aware of any social networking or email site asking for an identity proof while registering.
Most netizens are not afraid of disclosing their identity. However, those, who are afraid of the consequences of their posts, sometimes for justifiable reasons, prefer to post “anonymously”.
Has the time come to evaluate controls exercised by social networks on creating an account? While opening a bank account, one is required to provide a proof of identity and proof of address. Similar controls are required while opening an investment account. Nothing of this sort is asked while creating an email id, or opening an account on social networks. There maybe a need to develop technologies that will be able to link an account to a person. How far the social networking sites would be interested in doing this is a question though. Banks have something to lose if an anonymous person carries out a financial transaction and vanishes. Operators of social networks have no such worries. Has the time come to think about a regulatory framework for social network operators? Will they think about it themselves?
Good point. But there is one essential difference when it comes to Social Media. This is one (perhaps only) medium which anyone, even the most ordinary person can express, dissent, ask help, protest, or whatever…My opinion is that this needs to be preserved. Whether to disclose the identity or not should be left individual concerned. The laws by most governments are not the best benchmarks for deciding what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’.
But I can see that this (my view) is not going to happen. Governments and interest groups (political \ religious \ castes) love to interfere and not much is there to stop them.