Save our Pseudonyms! Social Media Clarity S01E03

The Social Media Clarity Podcast

[See http://socialmediaclarity.net for links and transcriptions.] Second of two shows on Identity and Content Abuse Mitigation. News: Huffington Post to require ID to post, says “It’s good for you!” [Part 2] Topic: Interview with Dr. Bernie Hogan of the Oxford Internet Institute - He says pseudonyms are important! Tips: Where to get IDs - for your application, or to hide your real ID. SPECIAL EDITORS NOTE: After the recording of this episode, we were made aware of an official blog post by John Pavley CTO @ The Huffington Post: "Free Speech and Identity Verification: Combating the Challenge of Trolling" which explains additional details for what they have planned. These details do not match press accounts, or the impressions we had when we recorded the podcasts in this two-part series. Specifically, Pavley states that they will support pseudonyms, and that "real names" will be required, but as a secret known only to HuffPo staffers. The difference between this and the "no pseudonyms" interpretation circulating about the new HuffPo policy is significant, and we think is still problematic, but not in all of the ways we detail in these two podcasts. Nonetheless, there is a reason we (and many in the press) jumped to "only real names" hypothesis for HuffPo's move: We've heard it from several companies before. This podcast talks about why pseudonyms are important to the ways that humans interact, and the research and advice we provide is relevant in many cases, including the new HuffPo posting policy... There will definitely be a chilling effect on communication if the (secret real-names) policy is enacted.