Anonymous Online Publication - Fad or Trend?

An anonymous reader asks: "Across the web, stories abound regarding censorship and persecution of those who publish content online that may be offensive or conflicting toward certain governments or ideals. It almost seems that you can't attach your name to anything without being heavily scrutinized for the opinions you express. Lately though, I've begun to see several communities that promote an atmosphere of anonymity to protect their users and facilitate open communication on tough subjects. PostSecret is one of the most popular of these sites, allowing a one-way publication medium for visitors to vent their frustrations, similar to Group Hug. However, both of these sites are one-way mediums, and do not provide for anonymous interaction of users. Is anonymous blogging and publication a brief fad, or a serious, growing trend?"

"One rare example I've found that allows a truly open anonymous mode of communication (dissimilar to Slashdot's own automatic demotion of 'Anonymous Cowards'), is the Teen Angst Central, or Tangst. Operated by a group of high schoolers and hosted by Google's Blogger service, its editors publish posts made anonymously by visitors, with comments and discussion made to the site sprouting from a community bonded by anonymity. I think this concept can easily be applied to other aspects of online society, though I have yet to see many examples beyond the simple angst-driven outpouring of feelings."

Pseudonymous

Who needs anonymity? Pseudonymity ought to be enough for most people.

In the past I've been spanked over "controversial" things I've published online, so I use a pseudonym for that sort of thing.

Re:Pseudonymous

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog [google.com]...

Nobody knows...

Actually, nowadays, not only do they know that you're a dog, but they know

* What kind of cats you chase
* Where you like to sniff butts
* What kind of dog food you like
* etc...

Um, I don't know about you...

but if I could go to jail for 14 years just calling George Bush a fsckin' asshat, I wouldn't be willing to settle for a pen name. I mean, how much effort does it take in that kind of gov't to track you down by ip?

Erm ok?

And why do the vast majority of these use Blogger where the 'owners' of the 'site' have no real control over the actual anonymity of the submissions?

Yes you can submit it as 'anonymous' but oops, cant do anything about server logs.

Re:Erm ok?

Yes you can submit it as 'anonymous' but oops, cant do anything about server logs.

Shhh...you're giving away all of Big Brother's best secrets!

Re:backbone sniffers make logs pointless

. . . you still wouldn't be able to tell whether I was reading the Anarchist's Cookbook or the Betty Crocker Cookbook via Freenet.

Dude, you should read the Betty Crocker Anarchist's Cookbook. The exploding cupcakes on page 42 are to die for!!

A brief fad...

...soon to be crushed beneath the jackboots of the Department of Homeland Security.

How anonymous is it

when you ISP disclose your browsing habits to the government anyway? Depending on open-wifis and the kindness of some public computers connected to the net (like in community colleges or local libraries) is sketchy at best, assuming they don't record your presence their through some other means.

It's not a fad .....

but now the destination of choice for all those who can't be paranoid enough about Area 51, little green men, or the conspiracy-de-jour bent on the overthrow of every legitimate government in the world. They will grow and prosper because there are too many people out there who are totally, absolutly and utterly incapable of looking at a crack in a sidewalk without seeing a slippery slope leading straight to hell.

Postsecret?

Ahem - saw it a while ago when it was relatively new, but there hasn't been any form of update on there for at least a year. I think you hold a valid point, but chose a sloppy example. F_T

Anonimity also for S/W Development

There were comments in the /. post "On Software Patent Lawsuits Against OSS" that suggested a possibility of an underground (anonymous) OSS development model emerging if patent lawsuits made (a lot of) OSS illegal. While responses to that comment claimed it is highly unlikely to happen (lots of OSS development done by big companies or just people unwilling to do it if they migh be sued) it is an interesting idea of a trend, which has some similarities with anonymous publishing mentioned here.

Who needs to be anonymous?

Oh, wait...

anonymity

If something is worth saying, it's worth putting your name on it.
Anyway, that's how I feel.
If you think you are right then say so. And if someone disagrees then you can find out why.

John Fenley

Re:anonymity

If something is worth saying, it's worth putting your name on it.

Even if it will cost you your job? your freedom? or your life?

Re:anonymity

If it will cost me my job, freedom, or life, then I might not say it, or will choose carefully who I say it to.

So you don't have anything to say that could cost you your employment, freedom, or life ...

Seeing as how I don't work for someone else, and live in the U.S., chances are good I can say anything I like without losing any of those things.

... and/or if you do, you haven't actually tried saying such ...

If you get fired for something you say then let the courts deal with it.

Uh-huh. They sure will. Especially if the entity prosecuting or suing you has sufficient legal/political clout or just plain old cash. Of course, you should realize that it might be cheaper or more politically expedient for them to just kill you or imprison you - of course, by the above, you probably believe that sort of thing doesn't happen in the good ole U.S. of A, right? I suggest you test that theory at your first opportunity - that way you can claim credit for what you've said with greater credibility, eh?

I am a strong believer in Freedom of Speech. I am Free to say what I want, and am Free to put my name on it.

Okay, I will not only take your word for it, I will [continue to] defend your right to do just that, if that's your choice - just as I will continue to defend my own right to Speech - including my Right to use names other than the one on my Social Security card. IANAL, but it is my understanding that use of an "alias" is not [yet] illegal in most states in the US. I would like to think that you (having made the claim of being a supporter of the Right to Speech) for your own part you would defend the Rights of others to their own choice not to put their "real names" on things they have to say. Not all of us are particularly interested in laying claim to the information we propagate, or counting coup by saying "I told you so", y'know? If you think that makes what we say "not worth saying", I strongly encourage you to not listen...

I realize that you stopped short of saying that anonymous speech should be prohibitted under the Law, but you should realize that such is the underlying issue here. There have been, and no doubt will continue to be, efforts to make anonymous speech - particularly anonymous speech via the Internet - illegal in the US. I think that would be a shame, but there are many who do not agree.

Finally, I commend to you the Revolutionary War period writings published under the nom de plume "E Publius" - perhaps you could have convinced the newspapermen of that era that anonymity for the likes of Patrick Henry was un-necesary and in fact rendered the words "not worth saying", but for my part, I'm gratified to follow in the footsteps of such writers - some of whose names we still don't know - and have no particular problem accepting the ideas presented without tying them to some name registered in the county birth records of the era.

"You have the Right / to Free Speech / ... unless you are actually stupid enough to actually try it" —The Clash, Know Your Rights

Federalist Papers?

I wish a judge would rule that the "audits" Scientologists sell to their customers were "defective" products and allow people to talk about them among themselves. Right now you mention Xenu and Scientology's lawyers issue you a smackdown.
And loser pays for court costs (which is the way it is here in Canada) to level the playing field by reducing extortive suit filing.
There's lots of ways to go about finding subscribers to your views but I believe most of them aren't needed yet in the United States. Places like Saudi Arabia and Iran should be the backdrop to serious discussion of why anonymity matters.

Freenet is really made for this...

...and you'll find all sorts of interesting stuff there, if you look. It might take a few hours for a new Freenet node to get integrated into the network, at which point response time will improve. Don't ever expect it to have fast interactive-surfing response times, though. Get used to opening a bunch of links in new tabs, and coming back to check them in a few minutes.

Freenet's currently got four "summer of code" [freenetproject.org] projects under way, plus their full-time coder. I'm not sure I like the network changes in 0.7 but I'm trusting that the developers know the critical points better than I do.

The stuff you find on Freenet ranges from the obligatory porn and anarchy junk, to weird conspiracy theory stuff, fairly sane political expression, DeCSS and similar technical content, and lots of "flogs", the name of which is yours to absorb.

Frost [sf.net] is a Usenet-like messaging system that uses Freenet as its back-end message store. It also takes a while to get going; after starting your Frost instance you might want to come back in 20 minutes to get the updated boards list, add a bunch of new boards, and give it another 20 minutes to pull messages in those boards. Once your Frost is up and running, you'll start to appreciate what Freenet's really capable of. Search the available files, or participate in a few discussions. Realize that the message transport latency might be anywhere from a few minutes to many hours, so correspondence will be reminiscent of Fidonet speeds.

Seriously, you owe it to yourself to check this stuff out. Don't claim to know internet anonymity without giving Freenet a few days' effort.

Blogging Anonymously

When I first started blogging, I didn't think about being anonymous. I felt, as others have stated, that what I had to say was important enough to me that I was willing to put my name to it.

Having blogged for several years, I've come to wish I'd started out and remained anonymous. While I might be willing to expose my own mistakes and foibles, the things I say can unintentionally hurt those I love. As someone who is active in my church, there are certain topics I dare not go near, and other topics I wonder if I'm just asking for trouble. The "Deb Series [unspace.net]," while possibly some of my best writing, also caused problems.

I've watched bloggers get serious grief from families, co-workers and other communities they belong to because of what they write. The lessons are painful to watch.

In my own case, in the real world, I've trashed my career multiple times for things like accademic integrity and standing up for a co-worker who's being sexually harassed. I've lost friends for saying the truth, and God help me, it's made me a bit of a coward. I've been burned; I don't like it. I'm willing to be burned again, but it's going to have to be a serious fight. On some issues, I've backed down.

I hate that, but if I don't protect myself, I won't do anyone any good.

There's a book out right now, "Orbit [amazon.com] by John J. Nance that speaks of a man alone on a doomed and communicationless 3 hour orbital tour. The man is free to write the truth because he believes he is going to die and the laptop will not be recovered for decades. He doesn't have to worry about what people will think. He also doesn't know there's a one-way connection to Earth, and billions of people are reading his every word.

I wish I could blog like that. I'm not sure why I haven't just scrapped my current blog and started anew, except that I doubt it would stay anonymous very long.

Anonymity provides a freedom that is both precious and necessary for freedom to flourish. Perhaps anonymity will be crushed beneath an over-reaching government. The loss may not be apparent initially, but in the long term, it will be devastating.

Freedom of speech often needs the freedom to be anonymous.

LowBrow anyone?

lowbrow.com lets you anonymously or not post some of the deepest darkest stuff you can imagine, or just plain stupid shit you have done or been involved in... hours upon hours of great entertainment, fun at parties, will not rip, run, or snag!!!

Anonymous speech thriving

Most Americans will think of other countries where anonymous speech is required to prevent retaliation by the government - countries like Iran, for instance, where anonymous speech IS thriving.

However, there are plenty of countries in the West - including America - where unpopular minorities require anonymous speech to avoid government retribution.

A friend of mine in Indiana called a conservative radio host (Rick Roberts) in California in April 2005, in order to give a contradicting opinion - and the next day state agents showed up at his house and took away his 2 year old son, causing his son a great deal of anxiety and eventually destroying my friend's marriage. He's still going through the system, trying to recover his son, over a year later.

There are also the death threats, of which I've received a few myself - from so-called Christians, Hippies, and everything in between. Damn straight it's nice to have some anonymity!

And we will continue to need that anonymity as long as a corrupt media continues to perpetuate the lie that anyone who is attracted to children must be a predator, despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary.

In any case, in our community proxies and/or TOR are the norm. We know for a fact that our government IS spying on us and seeking to do us harm.

Re:Proof of the need for Anonymous Speech

Under your belief in Freedom of Association, it is okay for someone to join Al Quida as long as you don't do anything subversive.

Points for using an organisation no-one is likely to admit to wanting to join. What about NAACP? Any other organisation - please, for the benefit of us unwashed masses, tell us what is fundamentally wrong with supporting a cause without 'being subversive' (Ooh, we can't have that! I mean, look what happened when all the blacks decided America's white power way of life was a way of life they were not going to stand for!)

Am I being inflammatory? Hell yes... because you're using incorrectly exaggerated examples to smack someone down as being dangerous and 'subversive', when the reality is you're advocating the censorship of views you disagree with. This is the same reason why freedom of speech protects organisations such as the KKK, militia groups, and NAMBLA, regardless of how heinous their ideas or beliefs may be.

Your polygamy example is another fatuous and inflamed 'example' - the LDS church hasn't "advocated" polygamy in a century.

Dont' Get It

I'm amazed at how my "generation" (currently in college) still doesn't "get it". They put their full names on their blogs and post the most insane crap. One of my friends, in particular, posts all about her chronic depression, experiments with drugs, and sex escapades. And that blog is the 4th result in Google for her name. The other three are clearly unrelated.

Why shame yourself in public? It's not like attaching your name to your insipid and boring personal "I had eggs for breakfast" blog is going to bring you fame and fortune. Go anonymous and have some fun. Stop doing everything to get attention.

Re:Dont' Get It

One of my friends, in particular, posts all about her chronic depression, experiments with drugs, and sex escapades

Dude! Give us a link!

Re: Anonymous Online Publication - Fad or Trend?

how 'bout Trendy Fad??

A distinction needs to be made

There needs to be a distinction between publicly anonymous and being anonymous to law enforcement. In a democratic society that values free speech, we need the first. However, in case free speech is abused, we need the second, hopefully with a court warrant. ISP's should be required to keep records of who owns/rents a URL and if served a warrant be able to provide that info to officers. However, this gets fuzzy with discussion groups and blogs that may not track every visitor.

What about...

Yes, i already know some of this websites, in fact i post anonymously on one.

I see this like an evolutionated human being (maybe i'm going too far), where the information win his own place. But also the lack of a know author lead to lose some "context".

When someone writes something is to COMUNICATE (maybe not always) what he/she wants, so it could (and will be) be that when the writer put on letters(symbols) what he/she is feeling, lose some of his/her feels and when somebody read the paper not everybody see/feel what he/she wants to share.
So share writes is about communication, and the lack of elements must be "patched" to avoid "noise" that leads to misunderstood.

If the text is an excelent write by the greatest writer ever, he will "patch" the anonymous sign (as he can). (There are some writers that don't need a sign, we can see through)

But ALL of this is great if nobody cares about EGO or Recognition, two factors that are involved with the greatest legacies of humanity.

Yes i love the idea of anonymous authors (with everything) but... i don't expect to be one of the persons who will change the world (like Socrates, Aristotle, Nietzsche...)
So it will be good to ask them what they think about this. (well they are dead... i mean a person like them.)

PS: Today we are in the days where an artist say what is or what is not art.

E.T. Posts

The first thing I thought of after reading the topic was Vernor Vinge's book, A Deepness in the Sky. In that book, the Emergents publish anonymously in order to direct the subject civilization toward their personal end. This included scientific papers, theories to prompt research and development, and current events and opinions designed to incite a global war and hide their presence.

Time will tell.

Is anonymous blogging and publication a brief fad, or a serious, growing trend?

IF people have anything worthwhile to say, and IF our Constitutionally-protected freedom of speech actually means anything to us, then yes, it is here to stay.

anonymity is a must sometimes....

One of the websites I operate is an unofficial website for an organization that is run by control freaks, They do not tolerate any kind of discourse or criticism. If this website did not operate anonymously there would literally be zero discourse or discussion for the members of this organization. This has been proved by the few times members were outed by there often comments or by telling the wrong person there screen name. Any member outed has always suffered some form of consequences. The consequences have run the gambit from harassing phone calls, mysterious visitors appearing at there work area who are intimidating and actually messing with there finances by with holding work. In a perfect world we wouldn't need to post things anonymously but in the real world many organizations stifle criticism in any manner available. Free speech is usually not free. Having said this I realize there is always a danger of people using this service when they have an ax to grind with someone or some organization. These people can be balanced with commentary by the offended parties. In the end I would rather err on the side of an open discussion.

Anonymity is important

I hang on the USENET news.admin.net-abuse.email newsgroup, where we deal with spammers.

The most effective spam fighting effort [spews.org] is totally anonymous; they have to be, because that's the only way they can avoid being sued into oblivion by deep-pocketed croporations (it's outright ironic that in order to protect their freedom of speech - saying that so-and-so is a spammer, they have to register their domain in Siberia [dnsstuff.com], of all places!!!)

Spammers are outright criminals and will stop at nothing to damage antispammers.

Plenty of people had a load of trouble from a spectacularly inept spammer [google.ca].

For example, the author of this page [216.137.100.175] (a page denouncing the spammer) had the spammer complain to the police which launched a criminal investigation that found nothing. After this failed, he barrages everyone who mirrors the page with complaints to their ISPs (this page [chickenboner.com] get 5 DMCA takedown notices PER DAY).

When the police complaints did lead nowhere, he simply harassed various police departments [216.137.100.175].

Finally, seeing that the takedown notice make the mirrorers rotating the hosting of the relevant parts complained about, thus rendering it totally ineffective, he started to try to DDOs the sites hosting the pages.

Many of the mirrorers would never had been able to denounce that particular spammer if they had been doing so under their real identities; anonymity is particularly vital when dealing with criminals, or lawsuit-happy individuals.

Another example is this well-known spammer, threatening legal action against antispam fighters [google.ca]. If you follow the thread, you will find a frothing lunatic that demands the identity of several spamfighters who have to work anonymously in order to avoid the hassle of lawsuits from spammers.

In 2003, the same antispam outfit was sued by spammers [google.ca]. Even though the lawsuit was thrown out of court, it was not without considerable annoyance and expense to the antispammers involved.

Only absolutely positive anonymity can help protect antispammers against the spammers.

Context is usually everything

But if I don't know who you are, why do I care about what you're writing? It may as well be fiction. Which is fine, if you're fine with that, but then why not just write fiction? Because that's the level at which your writing will be appreciated... If it's not good writing, why would anyone want to read it?

Just have a common name

That's what works for me...a potential employer searching google for me?? Ha! I hide amongst the 10 million hits for other people with my name (sometimes the same first, middle, and last names). How are they to know which one is me?

And if they do think they are me, well, it actually looks pretty good. Rugby/football/hockey player, professor, musician, comedian, actor...man, I can do everything!

;)

Fad or Trend?

What about lazy to sign up? Or in.....

It won't do any good

The only long term solution is depoliticization [blindmindseye.com]. The very reason that people need to actually care about these things is that the government can come after them in the first place. Solution? Strip the government of such power. Unfortunately, the government can exert a wide range of controls today. It can harass you from anything to the tax code to basic traffic violations to willfully misconstruing something you do. The fewer tenticles that the government has into society, the fewer avenues it has to suppress dissent.

Drink the hemlock, Socrates

I think that something published anonymously lacks the gravitas of something a man will put his own name upon. If memory serves, slashdot terms unattributed posts to "anonymous coward." This is fitting.

If you are to speak with the authority of Socrates, you should make the case against yourself, accept the Athenians' verdict, treat thoughts of escape with contempt, and then manfully deal with the consequences. Centuries ago in England, Hugh Latimer told his friend Nicolas Ridley, "play the man Master Ridley," before they were both burned at the stake.

There are dead lions and there are living dogs. Centuries later, we know the lions' names and are moved by their words.

I dared to cheer Zarqawi's death recently...

On Usenet. Someone quickly responded, that a bigger monster (emphasys mine) remains alive and well in the White House — an assessment I could not agree with.

I immediately had my mental faculties and education declared lacking and being "another evidence of Right Wing's neglect of schools" (never mind that amost all of my education happened in USSR). Among the epithets received were: "idiot", "nazi", and "traitor". Someone stated, that I need "deprogramming"...

Funny as it may sound, the point is, government is not the only thing to be concerned about. In fact, in a reasonably democratic country like US, government's persecution is the least of the concerns...

Anonymice

Funnily enough, I found that the Anonymous Bastards (TM) posting at 4chan [4chan.org] (where anonymity is encouraged or, on one board, enforced) give the impression, on average, of being more literate than most of what I commonly see in "normal" message boards and online forums. Why this would be the case, I do not know.

How is this a fad?

We've had psuedonomyous communication on the net and BBSes for years. It sounds like a reporter just found out that people don't always use their real names on the internet.

Consider anon.penet.fi for a simple example.

Welcome to...

...2ch [2ch.net].

History repeats itself

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat [wikipedia.org]

The circumstances were obviously quite different, but samizdat and anonymous pamphlets were once the only weapons of an oppressed people.

It'd be humorously ironic, if it wasn't so sad.

Granted, I exaggerate - the US is in quite different shape from the USSR of old. But there are some intriguing similarities in the paths you're taking.

Yup, quite different. You send people to tropical islands instead of Siberia for detention without trial, for example.

Such systems are already in place

...albeit the discussion depth isn't exactly what you'd call "deep" -- almost all 4chan's posts and replies are made anonymously, and there is definately interaction there, but the biggest problems with such an anonymous system is that no friendships can be forged over the internet, because you don't know who is who; it can be very difficult for administrators to weed out spammers and abusers due to the lack of information stored. Once you start moving up toward usernames, registration systems, and cross-user identification, anonymonity is lost, to the scale of IRC, which would clearly allow tracking to any dedicated enough parties.

subuse.net :: anonymous all the way

http://subuse.net/ [subuse.net]

Anonymous message boards. Post, interact, etc.

And then, http://subuse.net/level2 [subuse.net] , where anyone can anonymously create HTML content and post it for the world to see. Trick is, level2 also allows anyone to anonymously edit anyone else's content at will. Sort of like a wiki, but completely without rules or backups.

Holy Grail

True anonymity is the Holy Grail of free speech, and I seriously doubt any society will be able to achieve it so long as said society has a government. I'm no anonymous coward, but I can think of circumstances where it would be the only way to survive a publication. For example, if you learned of a secret government program that grossly violated the values of its citizens the only way to ensure that you wouldn't dissapear would be to publish anonymously.

If we did have truly anonymous communications like this, we would probably see two things:

1) A huge decrease in dishonesty, since any lie could easily be exposed by an anonymous communication. For example, if a government denied the existence of something and a government employee knew different - they could simply post the information. That of course assumes the leak couldn't be traced to them by simple process of elimination or interrogation. This type of anonymous communication would actually be most effective for politicians, particularly since they tend to be very partisan and will do just about anything to hurt their rivals. A fair bit of this already goes on by govenrment sources leaking stuff to the media, but it's far from anonymous and I'm guessing the really juicy stuff never makes it.

2) A corresponding (but I would argue acceptable) decrease in the accuracy of popular news. Since many of the most controversial stories would be published anonymously, they might be more difficult (or impossible) to verify, leading to significant bogus stories and baseless accusations. The real danger here would be the possibility of witch hunts.

Essentially, anonymous communication bypasses all restrictions on free speech - including some of the good ones like slander and fire! You could publish a story on an eminent nuclear crisis without fear of the NSA showing up to your house 10 minutes later, but you could also hurt a lot of people with a false story that somehow gained acceptance.

Maybe it's just because I'm a free speech supporter, but I find the idea of completely anonymous e-mail fascinating. Imagine the possibilities! Yes, it could be abused, but I firmly believe human civilazation would find ways to deal with that and become a hell of a lot more honest in the process. It reminds me of a science fiction story where the world's #1 fugitive was able to e-mail governments seeking refuge and had some success. Of course, that example is probably not going to get me a lot of supporters :(.

Can't stop the signal.

Dutch version of Grouphug: Vergeefmij

The Dutch version of Grouphug [grouphug.us] is named Vergeefmij [vergeefmij.nl].
It has almost the same concept as Grouphug: visitors can post confessions anonymously. However on Vergeefmij it's also possible for other visitors to leave comments on those confessions. Since a short while it also offers a forum, where one has to register first to publish topics. For people who really need to post anonymous should use their confession form [vergeefmij.nl]. Vergeefmij also offers a secure SSL form to enter confessions.

Confessions, and comments, are first moderated by the Vergeefmij staff before being published. The site is doing well for over two years now, I've been a vivid reader of it since it came online. I think there's a trend. For instance there are a lot of teens dealing with self mutilation and anorexia, posting their thoughts online using the confession form. On other forums they won't dare to posts them, because of the need to register with an email account first. Vergeefmij supplies a solution for people who are in need to posts their thoughts quick, without any hazzle and offering online counseling. When people allow other people to comment on their confessions, which is an option on the webform, discussions can be hard and fierce but most of the time people really try to support eachother.

Btw Vergeefmij means 'Forgive Me' in Dutch.

"Anonymous" destroys credibility.

For something to appear credible it almost has to have a name attached to it. I think one thing that has been shown by the internet is that with anonimity a large chunk, if not am outright majority, of humans are not to be trusted.

Re:not new

Ayep. [penny-arcade.com]

Re:Check out TOR

put it on goMyPlace reverse proxy and who knows may be the links you post will work with just a regular browser