I had a talk with Cole Stryker recently about anonymity and freedom of speech for the Believer. In his latest book, Hacking the Future, he presents a compelling argument for protecting anonymity at all costs. In the recent outing of troll Violentacrez and Amanda Todd’s tragic suicide, we have come face to face as a culture with privacy’s highest costs. Roxane Gay wrote an interesting essay in The Rumpus as much about not looking as not seeing, and a New Yorker story underlines how anonymity privileges women and men differently. Cole advocates thinking critically about the real costs of an anonymity-free Internet, and draws our attention to those few corporate giants who happen to acquire great power and financial gain when we relinquish our anonymity. “I don’t think anonymity is a Platonic ideal. But the choice is.”
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