The reposts and expressions of shock from public figures followed quickly after a user on the social platform X who uses a pseudonym claimed that a government website had revealed “skyrocketing” rates of voters registering without a photo ID in three states this year — two of them crucial to the presidential contest.
“Extremely concerning,” X owner Elon Musk replied twice to the post this past week.
“Are migrants registering to vote using SSN?” Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of former President Donald Trump, asked on Instagram, using the acronym for Social Security number.
Trump himself posted to his own social platform within hours to ask, “Who are all those voters registering without a Photo ID in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Arizona??? What is going on???”
…
Yet by the time they tried to correct the record, the false claim had spread widely. In three days, the pseudonymous user’s claim amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. A thorough explanation from Richer attracted a fraction of that, reaching 2.4 million users.
The incident sheds light on how social media accounts that shield the identities of the people or groups behind them through clever slogans and cartoon avatars have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online even as they spread false information.
Unpopular opinion: if you want to save the internet, no more anonymity. One person, one identity online
You will get LGBTQ people killed by forcing them to use their real identities online.
This take isn’t unpopular, it’s terrible
The Internet was just fine before all the normies got here. I suggest that we make the Internet difficult to use again to trim some fat.
I get what you’re saying, and why, but it’s a really bad idea. Force people to use their real identities online and you’ll end up with people no longer talking or they’ll be killed.
Also, this single identity is impossible to implement on the technical level. It’s too easy to cheat with that,.
I feel like this risk is drastically overblown. Every LGBTQ person isn’t going to be hunted down by some deranged lunatic just for speaking their mind.
If you’re in Afghanistan dealing with the Taliban, fine I’ll buy that you need anonymity. However, for those of us average folks in a western country that still has reasonable laws on the books… I don’t see it happening.
Most people are already trivially doxable. If you really wanted to, I’m sure you could figure out how to come to my residence and harm me if you were sufficiently motivated (please don’t, that would be a major downer).
I’ve had plenty of arguments on the Internet, thus far that hasn’t happened. Most people just want to live their life…
This also goes the other way too, the nastiest people/the ones making repeated threats could be more quickly identified/stopped from making those threats, creating swarms of harassment accounts, cheaters could be stopped in games because a ban would be a “no you are really truly banned for X number of years” (and those of us that enjoy multiplayer video games could stop having to install ever more invasive software on our computers).
I think there’s a time and place for anonymity; anonymity has certainly allowed history to be changed for the better in the past, but I don’t think it should be the default (it never has been until very recent history)… and I’m very concerned that anonymity could end up changing history for worse (and already has).
Trump may never have been elected if the broader public wasn’t flooded with anonymous “supporters” in 2016 and those of us arguing for Clinton ended up wasting time arguing with bots.
No idea what you mean by this. It’s pretty easy to have a single identity and/or government verifiable identity system.
Telling people they are over reacting to death threats is a take…
It is “easy” to have a single Identity system, but that doesn’t address the criticism of it being difficult to secure. But either way, it seems Florida has volunteered for this experiment with the age restriction for social media.
That’s a gross oversimplification of my comment, by a brand new account too, very cool.
It’s a charitable simplification too. I’m not the one that emphasized that not every LGBTQ person is going to be hunted.
Because it’s absurd to say that nobody would be harmed; speaking in absolutes is the antithetical of intelligent discussion for complex issues.
How many LGBTQ people were killed because Trump and all the faux Trump supporting accounts weren’t stopped in 2016? How many more will be killed if this problem of bot accounts, nation state actors, and people making threats with 0 accountability isn’t solved and disinformation and extremism spreads further?
I pirate too much stuff because monthly fees and everything as a service are eating everyone alive. Hard pass.