Transparency vs Anonymity: 4Chan and Facebook

NAMESAKE INFOGRAPHIC NAMESAKE.COM THE RULES OF THE ONLINE ROAD TRANSPARENCY®ANONYMITY Earlier this year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was quoted as saying that he champions a single identity transparency-or an online presence that dissolves the walls between our private and public selves. Christopher "Moot" Poole, who leads the well-known image forum 4chan and its growing anonymous user base, positions himself on the opposite end of this debate. He fights instead for the right to maintain undisclosed identities in order to promote unfettered content sharing. Let's weigh the sides regarding this deeply polarizing issue. TEAM TRANSPARENCY TEAM ANONYMITY NOTABLE FIGUREHEAD NOTABLE FIGUREHEAD Mark Zuckerberg Christopher "Moot" Poole FOUNDER OF: facebook 4chan FOUNDER OF: TIME's "Person of the Year" (2010) TIME's "Most Influential Person of the Year" (2009) AMOUNT OF ACTIVE FACEBOOK USERS: AMOUNT OF ACTIVE 4CHAN USERS: 500 million 7 million ZUCKERBERG, ON THE "FACEBOOK EFFECT" POOLE, ON WHY A SINGLE AND HAVING A SINGLE IDENTITY: IDENTITY WOULD BE NEGATIVE: "You have one identity... Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity." "The cost of failure is really high when you're contributing as yourself." During a recent SXSW keynote speech, the 4chan leader contended According to the creator of Facebook, by presenting more than one that when you contribute with an open identity, you have to be willing version of your "complete" self, you are being inauthentic and cowardly in refusing to disclose your identity as the statement-maker. to accept failure and criticism in public. This ends up dissuading many from speaking up or establishing controversial viewpoints. WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT HAVING A SINGLE IDENTITY? WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT ANONYMITY? "I think anonymity is authenticity; it allows you to share in a completely unvarnished, unfiltered, raw way and I think that's ALLOWS ENFORCES EXPRESSION OF OPINIONS WITHOUT something that's extremely valuable." ACCOUNTABILITY -CHRIS POOLE ASSOCIATES THE CONTENT CREATOR WITH THE CONTENT AND LEGITIMACY PREVENTS BAD INTERNET PRACTICES ENCOURAGES AUTHENTIC CONTENT FUELS CREATIVITY REPERCUSSIONS SHARING (SLANDER, ETC.) AND P EXPERIMENTATION WHO BENEFITS? WHO BENEFITS? in THE NAME YOU CAN TRUST! 500 PEOPLE RECOMMEND ME! Content creators Advertisers Self-promoters Content creators Collaborative Whistleblowers who need the protection of anonymity who want to take who want their thinkers who want a credit for their content to be more shared experience content important than themselves THE CURRENT SITUATION Most Are Transparent ACCORDING TO A PEW RESEARCH SURVEY: 25% to 1/3 82% 60% 38% 35% Say they don't know if this data is available online. Say that their email address, Most adults who keep Among adults Say that profile Say their home address, home phone an online profile say that who say can be seen by profile is only it is currently public. anyone who clicks on it. number and employer they have a accessible information are available online. visible profile: to friends. ...And Don't Care PRIVACY AND TYPES OF ONLINE ADULT INTERNET USERS* 43% 21% 18% 17% Worried by the Wayside Unfazed and Inactive Concerned Confident and Careful Creatives Don't worry about their personal information and don't limit the amount Don't worry about their data being online, and actively upload Are scared about their Are anxious about how of information that can be found out personal information being much information is about them online. online and proactively limit available about them, content, but try to limit their personal information. their information. but don't limit their online information. *FIGURES DONT ADD UP TO 100 DUE TO ROUNDING ERROR. facebook But /0% of Facebook users are "somewhat" to “very"concerned about privacy when using the site. SOURCES: KILPATRICK, DAVID. "THE FACEBOOK EFFECT." 2010. VENTUREBEAT.COM : NAMESAKE.CcOM : SLATE.COM GALLUP.COM COMPUTERWORLD.COM Photos: Zuckerberg courtesy of Facebook; Poole by Jordan Hollender for MIT Technology Review