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30 Nov 2008 10:33 am

The Cloak Of Invisibility

Paul Heald attended a privacy conference last weekend:

Consensus seemed to emerge that legal remedies for invasion of privacy, defamation, tresspass, and sexual harrassment on the internet could reach the worst abuses, but many panelists expressed frustration that the anonymous nature of internet effectively prevented the enforcement of legal rules.  The "right" to communicate anonymously lies at the heart of the problem.  But where does this right come from?

Not the law . . . we have no legal intuition that it's okay to commit crimes and torts as long as we do so anonymously.  Nor do we see a right to use any other mass media anonymously.  Can you go to your local radio or television station and demand to broadcast your most craven thougts anonymously?  What's different about the internet?

The web's architecture is what's different.  To borrow from Larry Lessig's emphasis on structure, anonymity is built into its very code.  Those who realized the web saw a chance to overthrow existing authority, existing hierarchies of power.  A glorious treasure trove beckoned just within their reach . . . including the seductive cloak of anonymity.  Thousands of coders chained to their terminals plotted a slave revolt.  They grabbed power their masters could not see; they claimed the power to be invisible.

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