Should anonymity be removed from social media or will it erode personal freedom and possibly erode democracy?

Yes sometimes they do Chewbacca as it's more than their location they need to hide, and I think depending on the forum that's easier said than done.

I think they’d have to find a way around VPN to be able to ID people wouldn’t they ?

It is indeed a double-edged sword, to ban anonymity from SM. There’s an article on the BBC today, specifically about online abuse of women. It seems that some SM companies are better than others at policing their one sites. It’s quite scary what people get away with.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58924168

I personally don't have face book or social media. Only watsapp. That said, I would have no problem with my name attached to anything I said for publication.
Would it perhaps lessen the bullying if you had to attach your real name.
I'm not sure I know enough about it as does that then pose a safeguarding risk.

Neen

I personally don't have face book or social media. Only watsapp. That said, I would have no problem with my name attached to anything I said for publication.
Would it perhaps lessen the bullying if you had to attach your real name.
I'm not sure I know enough about it as does that then pose a safeguarding risk.

You are literally on social media right now....

I'm frightened by the way that social media is destroying our way of life as we know it. I'm on FaceBook and Gransnet, but that's all, and have never had any abuse thank goodness. My daughter is on a lot more, and some of the hatred and abuse she has seen is very worrying.
I would have no problem in having anonymity removing.

I think removing anonymity would impact on the most vulnerable groups, I think it would be a disaster for women in abusive relationships.

Alegrias1 oh I didn't realise this was social media. I'm not too knowledgeable on technology.
Ok . It would seem I am social media then. I would hope I'd never offend anyon, so I don't think I personally would mind my name attached to comments but to be honest, I'd probably comment less and altho I always hope to try to think about the bigger picture of where the other person's beliefs are, I'd think even more cautiously about not offending if that makes sense. So in that way, if people are like me it would be a good thing, but I'm not sure about safeguarding, especially the vulnerable and those with mental health related challenges.

Neen.

I think the problem is that we don't know what other people are going to be offended by. So if I write something that most of us think is absolutely fine, there could still be somebody who think it's unacceptable, and then decide to do something about it.

So if others know my real name, I could be traced and targeted.

One option, of course, is no online activity at all, but that's not possible any more.

I like my small measure of anonymity. Having suffered a stalker in the past I’d hate to be so vulnerable again, and believe that a certain level of anonymity is protecting against identity theft and being vulnerable to stalkers. That said of course I could live without social media if it comes to it and of course I try to be kind in all I post.