Internet Anonymity: Can Wild West be Regulated?

Image via Carlos PX

Internet oversight is an intensely debated issue, and with the Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen, exposing Facebook, it's an impassioned topic throughout American households. With the internet becoming more and more accessible to more and more Americans, it begs the question: How do you regulate information on the internet when most people have total anonymity?

The answer right now seems to be pretty laissez faire with regulation of information mostly being up to individuals and company policy. In pre-internet times, information was regulated by the means of distribution. There is no doubt the internet has increased the average Americans ability to share their ideas with the world with anonymity. Before the internet it was almost impossible to spread misinformation with complete anonymity.

Due to this, some people believe the government should regulate the internet and either remove anonymity, and have a personal identifier linked to anything you do on the internet or the government should make posting misinformation illegal and punishable.

Alexis Ogdie, government teacher, is in favor a removing anonymity from the internet.

“On the one hand I think it's a brilliant idea, because we see that anonymity seems to be what enables so many people to act as trolls… A little bit of getting rid of anonymity would provide a little bit of accountability,” said Ogdie. “In terms of practicality, one wonders how you would even begin to enforce such a thing. The internet is like the wild west.”

Removing misinformation from the internet? That's a whole other beast.

“On the most basic leve,l I am reluctant to act on any desire to increase censorship… Having said that, language and speech can be dangerous… I do think we need to take a long look at libel and slander laws, and our social media websites and juggernauts need to be responsible for removing obviously incorrect information,'' said Ogdie.

In the meantime, perhaps flagging or marking misinformation online can serve as a short-term solution.

“I think it's a great idea," said Ogdie. "I think Facebook and Twitter need to get better at it… It's a nice half step towards providing some accountability, but not going towards full censorship.”