[EA-3167]

I think anonymous social media as the mainstream is a fad, the end-point is going to be more like Snow Crash, minus the artistic flair. I think text-based, possibly anonymous social media will persist, but it won't be what billions of people are doing.

Most of the problems with social media come down to the ability of people to separate themselves from the consequences of their speech and actions. I don't think that lack of anonymity should be enforced, I just think it's the natural progression of people trying to gather in groups on or offline.

[lordfrito]

100% this.

The problems of social media are largely already solved in the real world, where there are real consequences to bad behavior. Reputation is a thing in the real world.

We're still in the medieval ages of the internet. People are regularly waylaid and conned by digital highwaymen.

We need the digital equivalent of a reputation in the digital world. Will end up being similar to a SSN -- an identity that follows you around and can't be shaken. It's going to very unpopular with the libertarian minded, privacy focused, and religious mark-of-the beast types. But I see no other way forward.

[optimalsolver]

You mean like a China-style social credit system?

[lordfrito]

Yes and no.

Like China, in that users are identifiable in the real world, and held accountable for their actions.

Unlike China in that it's not about mass surveillance and mass shaping of behavior and political opinion.

Think of it like a drivers license, but for the internet. Keeps people from anonymously performing drive by shootings and hit-and-run type events, because the car/driver can be traced back to a real person.

Benefits:

- The user that seems to be acting like a troll has a "record", a reputation for being a troll on other sites. Dude is clearly an idiot, or out to cause trouble. Best if I just ignore his crapposting and strong opinions about politics or whatever.

- Person that posted private NSFW pics of me online turns out to be my troubled ex on the other side of town. I've reported the crime to the local police and prosecutors office.

- Person who posted bomb threat, well we can all see it's some 8yo kid who goes to that school. Follow up there first.

- That guy from overseas who wants to give me $1M if I first wire him $1000, well looks like he is a known criminal. Problem avoided.

- In spite of their online reputation and my better judgment, I screwed up and got scammed out of money by someone online. Well turns out he's Joe Blow from Arkansas and so I've filed a police report against him. Also I've contacted a lawyer and have filed a lawsuit.

I understand the concerns and comparisons to Chinese social credit, as I said the libertarian and privacy minded people won't be happy. They'll argue they have a right to surf/drive anonymously without a license, and that the government will use this for ill, etc.

End of the day I have faith that our system of government, with it's checks and balances, will make it harder for those in power to abuse the system compared to CCP. For example, here you'd need a warrant to look into a persons online behavior. Companies will not be able to track people without their consent, etc.

Still, the ability to track people at scale will be abused, as power is always abused. The question is "are we better off collectively as a society for what what we gain, knowing the background level of power abuse that we'll have to endure?"

Let me put it another way, would you rather that we get rid of drivers licenses and other identification like SSN used by say, your bank? Without that info, it becomes much easier for me to impersonate you and withdraw money from your bank account. As it stands, banks have to follow KYC laws, which means they have to know who their customers actually are, which makes it hard to scale digital fraud as all transactions can be traced back to real people which can get arrested and/or charged with crimes.

All I'm suggesting is that we need this level of traceability on any part of the internet that matters. Banks, commerce, retirement saving, all communications with minor children, and most public spaces communications (Facebook, Reddit, eBay, Tinder, etc).

I'm all for keeping parts of the internet anonymous. They'd end up being disused, like back alleys in shady parts of town. Only people with something to hide go there (4chan, etc). Maybe you can trust the guy you meet there, but I wouldn't give him any money. Who takes 4chan users seriously? Meanwhile the rest of us stay on the other part of the internet, where trolling and shitposting wouldn't be as much of a problem anymore.

[EA-3167]

I feel like those "libertarian minded..." types are ultimately just another brand of utopian fantasist. It sure would be lovely if we could have nice things, but we already know why we can't: human nature.

Maybe that'll change some day, but not today.