Anonymity, pseudonymity, and the agency of online identity: Examining the social practices of r/Gonewild

Abstract

A debate is currently raging regarding the value of anonymity online. On one side of the debate is Facebook, the world's largest social network site. Facebook demands that people use their real names and is one of the leading forces behind the push towards a "real name" Internet. On the other side of the debate are scholars such as danah boyd and Bernie Hogan and sites such as 4chan and Reddit that view anonymity and pseudonymity as important to how people construct identity online. While much has been written about the benefits of anonymity and pseudonymity, there is a lack of published research examining specific practices enabled by pseudonyms. This article provides a detailed account of the behaviors enabled through pseudonymous identity construction through a case study of the subreddit r/gonewild. The main contribution of the article is to provide a specific account of the costs of a totalizing embrace of the "real name" Internet.

Grievance Articulation and Community Reactions in the Men’s Rights Movement Online

“…Anonymity influences both the internal and external dynamics of web communities. Internally, anonymity may provide users a direct pathway to strategically manage their online identity (e.g., Leavitt, 2015;van der Nagel & Frith, 2015). This is particularly the case in online communities at the edge of institutionalized political discourse.…”

Reddit’s Veil of Anonymity: Predictors of engagement and participation in media environments with hostile reputations

“…As such, the very act of creating a profile on Reddit shifts the anonymous environment to a pseudonymous (e.g., Ammari, Schoenebeck, & Romero, 2018) or semi-anonymous (e.g., Kilgo et al, 2016) environment. Some Reddit users create throwaway accounts to engage temporarily without revealing one's identity (De Choudhury & De, 2014;Van der Nagel, 2013). Van der Nagel (2013) notes that throwaway accounts are typically separate from user's persistent accounts.…”

Anon pls: Anonymity and normativity in sexual abuse posts

“…Поэтому, чтобы быть и тем, и другим, ей нужен псевдоним, который создаст в интернете для нее еще одну «сцену» (даже если аудитории вдруг будут совпадать). Другим примером того, как анонимность позволяет отыграть идентичности, которые иначе остались бы скрытыми [Shaw, Gant, 2002;Keipi, Oksanen, Räsänen, 2015], является сабреддит 5 r/Gonewild, где пользователи (в основном женщины) публикуют свои полу-и обнаженные фотографии в сопровождении какой-либо информации, обычно без изображения лиц [van der Nagel, 2015]. Большая степень анонимности, которую дает использование псевдонима, позволяет раскрываться идентичности, которой нет места в «интернете настоящих имен» -и эта роль на такой платформе является нормой, тогда как за ее пределами она может стигматизироваться и подвергаться негативным социальным санкциями.…”