The flaw of anonymous apps.
A response to Mark Suster’s post.
This is a response to Mark Suster’s post on Both Sides of the Table called “How do I Really Feel About Anonymous Apps Like Secret?”. It’s a longish read, but a good one.
The internet is a wonderfully scary place. Anonymity is one of the most debated and key features to the internet. Behind the keyboard, I could be anyone. My name might not even be Justin (it is). But that’s what we’ve learned to deal with. Just recently, there has been a resurgence of interest surrounding anonymity apps like Secret and Whisper. We’ve had VCs and Entrepreneurs on both sides of the spectrum: some love it, some hate it. Me? I tend to err on the side of identity.
Mark likes networks like Twitter and Facebook because:
I started from a position of wanting a “real identity” because to me I want to know whom I’m dealing with.
Mark says that because he knows everyone on Facebook, he feels safer when posting more personal pictures and information. I agree with Mark here; the information I share on Facebook vs. Twitter is typically different because of the types of people who will be seeing my content on either platform. Facebook allows me to control who can see my content, while on Twitter I want everyone to see my content.
Mark goes on to say:
Contrast that [Facebook] with HackerNews. Every time my posts ended up there the conversation descended into hate and vitriol and a lot of people that don’t really know me calling me all sorts of names.
While I haven’t had a many bad experiences with the Hacker News community, I can see where Mark is coming from. Every community is different.
Context is everything. Anonymity or pseudonymity can work in an environment that encourages it and discourages bullying.
But that leads me to ask, what sizable community isn’t going to have bullying and hate? If you’re on a sizable community on the internet, there will always be trolls out there. I have a lot of experience with the trolls of the internet from my 4+ years of being a YouTuber. I found that the YouTube comments were generally tame, with about 1-2 negative comments per video. Granted, some communities are better than others. Take Secret for example.
In their Medium post, the founders of Secret said:
We built Secret for people to be themselves and share anything they’re thinking and feeling with their friends without judgment.
This is exactly the problem. I am not against free speech. I love free speech. But here’s the thing: there should be consequences for your actions. Secret allows for people to say anything they’d like without any repercussions. Nobody will know it was you. But what if we applied this ideology to other aspects of our lives?
If everyone had the ability to take $50 from anyone they knew without any consequences, would people do it even if they knew it was wrong? Certainly. It’d be hugely popular. So why don’t we? The consequences, of course. Broken friendships, fines, legal troubles, etc. Natural consequences allow for a balance.
Secret and other anonymous communities have one major flaw: they have no natural consequences.
If I say something rude on Twitter, I’ll get hammered by the community (especially if this comment is directed at a well know Twitter-er). I could lose my entire reputation with a single tweet. While I see this an advantage of Twitter, some have been wary of these public networks because of how quickly one bad tweet could be picked up and used against you.
One Secret tagline is “Conversations you can’t have anywere else.” How about having these conversations with a friend, instead of strangers on the internet? If there is such a big problem with being monitored, having your reputation at stake, etc, why not just talk to a friend if you need to get something off your chest? Private messaging services like iMessages have proven to be secure, and a face to face meeting is even more secure. I’m fine with apps like Secret existing, it certainly works for some people, but this whole anonymity thing hasn’t been everything people have thought it to be.
Mark Suster doesn’t seem to be totally against anonymity on the internet. He writes:
At its best apps like Secret or Whisper can be a place where people can reach out to the community for support. They could be a place to find solace when you’re lonely or problem solve when you don’t know who else to turn to.
But for now Secret is not that. It’s something all together different. It is … Perez Hilton. TMZ. Joan Rivers. Geraldo Rivera.
This is why I think an app like Secret could be a great thing, but when you allow so many people to have a voice that can be heard by thousands, you have some issues. Personally, I think anonymity would work great in a slightly smaller environment. For instance, if a company with 50+ employees set up an anonymous network, workers would be able to voice complaints and comments without fearing unnecessary consequences.
And Secret isn’t lost forever, either. I think if Secret would have dedicated members of the community (or employees) monitor and eradicate bullying and hate, the bullies would eventually have to leave if nothing they said was on the network for more than a few moments before being taken down. Unfortunately, manually removing users and posts isn’t exactly scalable, but it sure can be made more scalable.
In the end, I agree with Mark. Especially as someone who has not felt the need for strong anonymity, I don’t support apps like Secret that are allowing hateful posts to be seen and commended (see examples of these posts on Mark’s original post). With some cleanup and better management, I could see anonymous networks thrive in certain communities, hate free. But alas, not yet.
