Goodbye Anonymous Blogging
This week the UK High Court ruled that anonymous bloggers have no right to have their identities kept secret. The ruling was made because of a blog which Detective Constable Richard Horton of Lancashire Constabulary used to run called NightJack (no longer live).
In his blog he gave citizens advice such as :
If the Police arrive to lock you up, say nothing. You are a decent person and you may think that reasoning with the Police will help. Wrong.
It was this sort of advice which made the blog so popular, with the blog reaching 500,000 visitors a week in less than a year. It also landed the author a prestigious Orwell Prize for political writing. However, the British newspaper The Times wanted to release information about Mr Horton. Mr Horton had asked for an injunction and pleaded with the courts that his anonymity be preserved “in the public interest”, however he was not successful. Because he wrote about live cases on his blog he has received a warning from his superiors.
I am not too happy about the judges decision. I think in some cases a bloggers identity should be revealed, particularly if they are verbally attacking other people via their blog. However, there are certain situations where I think revealing someones idendity would do much more harm than good ie. people who are blogging about abuse etc.
Though John Cook did raise some good points in his post “You Don’t Have a Right to Anonymity“. He asks why Mr Horton should have anonymity, particularly after talking about real people on his blog.
What do you think : Should bloggers be allowed to be anonymous?
Link : Police blogger loses anonymity (via i-com)
Written by Kevin Muldoon from Blog Themes ClubPosted on June 19th, 2009 and filed under Blogging News
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10 Responses to “Goodbye Anonymous Blogging”
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What do you think this would mean for all the blogs out there that are ghostwritten?
I could honestly see the need for anonymous blogging just from the case that this ruling is based on. If someone can provide “insider advice” that can help people out on a serious level such as that while still maintaining the position that gives them access to the information, maybe anonymous blogging is needed.
It sounds like the kind of information he was providing is the kind of thing that should be common knowledge. It isn’t like he is helping criminals. Common criminals already know the system and all the ways around it. It seems more like he is helping people who get caught up in the system for small mistakes or things beyond their control.
That’s ridiculous. I should have the right to blog with an alias if I chose to. Britain is just become Big Brother more and more each day.
No. Definitively bloggers should not be allowed to be anonymous.
You must be responsible of your words and you cannot do that via nicknames or anonymity.
I can see both sides. I think that people should be responsible for their actions i.e. I have always been of the opinion that I wouldn’t say anything about someone that I wouldn’t say to their face in real life.
However, a lot of people don’t think like this. You only have to look at the comments section of youtube to see how nasty some people are.
Consider this : Imagine someone starts posting pictures of you online and starts verbally abusing you. However, they are hiding behind a username and you have no idea who they are. Shouldn’t you have the right to find out who is attacking you in this manner? Of course you should.
But, as I said in my posts, there are situations where people should be anonymous (someone being abused etc).
And therein lies the problem. Every case is different however this ruling suggests that it’s one rule for all situations.
I can see what you’re saying about if someone is anonymously defaming people’s characters. I agree that there should be rules in place that let people find out who is doing something like that. And even though I think people should have a right to anonymoty I always use my real name when posting things online.
However, if someone were giving out information that would help consumers but not necessarily be in the best interest of the business they work for, isn’t that a good thing?
People have their reasons to stay anonymous. for instance, to protect their identity, to express freely their opinion. however, if anonymous blogging is used to attack other people (i.e perez hilton) I think, that’s a different story.
Still, I don’t think every blogger in this world should reveal their whole identity. Like everybody would even care.
Really awesome post keep it up.
Salman
http://www.tips4blogging.co.cc
Does the ruling affect all bloggers in the UK or just those who piss someone off or post controversial topics?
There have been many times I’ve wanted to have an anonymous blog. Not because I’m ashamed of the topics I’d like to cover, but as a professional decision to not have it associated with my real name.
Many times, professionals (lawyers, writers, politicians) want to state opinions and share information but it would tarnish their professional image, and so they must keep quiet or use a pen name.
Take a look at political correctness. Anything you say against it is misconstrued as being racial, biased, prejudice, etc. Even stating the truth of the matter, as I have, could lead to my name being associated with it in a negative way.
I can also go on to state that, not only is Big Brother watching you, he is also listening to you. That can be read as I’m a fanatic who doesn’t trust government, which it most likely will be, or that I just have a knowledge of the book 1984 and the fallacy of political correctness.
Both statements above could lead to career failure by the use of my real name. If I stated those anonymously, I could still be found out, but not as quickly. LOL
As writers, we have to choose our words (and topics) very wisely. Not everyone can get away with trying to be Bill O’Reilly. LOL
Isn’t it funny, in the article you link to, most of the commenters use fake or pen names. Wonder why that is?
This is actually a tough subject and many factors should be considered before exposing someone. Men have been killed for less.
Good topic! Are you sure you wanted to post that with your real name? LMAO!!
Both instances have advantages and disadvantages. However, why would someone put up a blog that has a possibility of being read by everyone who has access with the internet, then hide their true identity? It’s quite ironic, in my opinion.
If you’re going to put up something on the internet, wouldn’t you want people to read it, and make them realize that you were the one who wrote it? Just a thought.
