sep 4, 2011 - Naming Names on the Internet

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Why, then, are the calls for restrictions on Internet anonymity growing?

Last month, Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich of Germany said bloggers should disclose their true identities. He cited the case of the Norwegian terrorist suspect Anders Behring Breivik, who had professed admiration for a blogger who wrote under the pseudonym “Fjordman.”

“Normally people use their names when they take a position,” Mr. Friedrich told Der Spiegel. “Why shouldn’t this be something that is also self-evident on the Internet?”

His words were echoed by Eric E. Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, who said during a media conference in Edinburgh last month: “The Internet would be better if we had an accurate notion that you were a real person as opposed to a dog, or a fake person, or a spammer.”

Mr. Schmidt was speaking in relation to Google Plus, the company’s new social networking service. If people do not want to give their real names, he noted, they do not have to use Google Plus.

Fair enough. Still, it is discouraging to hear a top executive at a company that says it is committed to an “open Internet” opine that anonymity is overrated.