Social Platform Trust & Safety

Facebook Groups also allow moderators to remain anonymous, despite the platform otherwise requiring “real names.” While anonymity is not a panacea for harassment—many harassers in our study used their real names—it makes it possible for public figures to evade responsibility for engaging in hate or harassment.

If we want to protect the rights of real people, it should be much harder to take away someone’s account and online property. But that only works if we have a way to know which accounts belong to a real and specific human with an authentic connection to the community. That implies more stringent validation requirements to get and keep an account.

For Tech Companies

Close anonymity loopholes . Facebook Groups and Pages can be created without linking to a specific Facebook user; only an email address is necessary. Admins can post to their groups under the Group or Page name, effectively allowing anonymous, or at least, pseudonymous, posts. Ending anonymity will not end harassment; in some... See more

Instead of asking whether or not a platform optimizes for engagement, it can be more helpful to ask how explicit or implicit these engagement signals are, and provide users with more controls to allow them to tweak their online experience.