(no subject)

My opinion about false identities/anonymous identities on the internet has changed from "eh, it's another thing where the adult authorities want us to do one thing, but you can slip through the cracks" to "this really pisses me off."

The latest thing here is Mark Zuckerburg's sister declaring that internet anonymity is going away because it prevents bullying. So once again, someone's decided to pull the "to protect our precious precious children" rhetoric to basically do whatever the hell they feel like - I'm pretty sure the end of anonymity is more a convenience to the big companies than to individual users.

And it's total bullshit. I'm old, okay? I grew up before the internet for all practical purposes. And I remember a fuckton of bullying. Face to face, from kids I had to deal with every day - and from the teachers. The ability to fight back or complain was real, real limited. No internet means nobody tried cyberbullying me, which yeah, I guess I could retreat back to my bedroom and build models or whatever. But where would my life have been if I could have bitched at a batch of adults or kids online that bullies were making my life hell? Where would my life have been if I could have posted a batch of artwork under a fanciful name, or made a YouTube channel? Where would my life have been if I'd had something like the "It Gets Better" project which I could sneak off and see without getting caught? So much for protecting the children.

So let's see, this person at the top of the corporate hierarchy in a country which really benefits people at the top of the corporate hierarchy;

• doesn't have to fear losing their jobs for complaining about coworkers
  
• doesn't have to fear losing their jobs if it becomes known they have a side business, like art or writing, which supervisors might feel detracts from their real job
  
• doesn't have to fear social censure or losing their jobs if their kinks are made public
  
• doesn't have to fear social censure for doing weird hobbies, like say, building the entire D&RGSW in their basement
  
• doesn't have to fear being beat up by other teens if they complain about stuff at school
  
• doesn't have to fear being harassed or beat up by other teens if they use online to investigate an interest in same-sex relationships
  
• doesn't have to fear being harassed by family or others if they use online to find out more about how you have sex with your boyfriend or girlfriend
  
• doesn't have to fear harassment at the hands of their church if they investigate other religions - or talk about leaving the LDS, or whatever.
  
• doesn't have to fear their family if they come forward to talk about abuse
  
• doesn't have to fear anti-Semitism if they come forward as Jewish
  
• doesn't have to fear government forces if they criticize the government

Wow. I can see that this lovely corporate exec has a real stake in protecting people. This sort of rhetoric pisses. Me. The. Fuck. Off.

And I can say all this, only because I sincerely hope this statement doesn't come back to haunt me in 3-10 years.