Internet, The Protector of Identities

Growing up the internet was a gateway for information. I learned a lot about subjects, things or people I was interested in. As I got older I started joining internet forums. I was happy at the fact that my identity could be protected when I posted things; I don’t want people to know my name, where I live or my cell number. Nobody can figure out who the poster was.  But then I had seen one post on the George Zimmerman case. The poster talked about Trayvon Martin deserved to be dead and added a bunch of racial slurs. I was quite surprised at this comment and thought the administrators would do something about it. But the only action they did was deleting the comment. The poster probably didn't suffer any ramifications of being racists as well. 

According to Mike Beall, from the Daily Iowan, people on the internet who are racist hide because they are either so ashamed of their racism…afraid of societal repercussions, or just seeking attention.  This statement is quite true. People who are racist on the internet don’t want their identity to be associated with a racist remark. It can lead to them being physically and emotionally hurt and can lead to hate crime charges on them. Nevertheless, internet anonymity protects people who post racist comments on the internet.

I believe using the internet as shield is cowardly thing to do. People should suffer the consequences for what they say. With this protection, racist groups would increase on the internet and racism would be on the rise. Michelle Lhooq, from Vice Magazine, actually found a site that targets the black community through news stories and makes fun of them by making pictures or just saying racist remarks.  Reading this article I was surprised that no one was trying to stop this site. I believe the only thing the government can do is just monitor it, which doesn't solve the problem. The thing I don’t get is why the government can’t do anything about racism on the internet.

According to Mark Potok, a senior at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the reason why government or police can’t do anything of racist comments or sites is because of the freedom of speech. It’s quite hard to place a law around what posters post if it infringes of the freedom of their speech. I believe the only way people can get charged over the internet is if there identity is exposed, in most cases rarely happens and defeats the purpose of internet anonymity.

Internet anonymity is a privilege for people. It gives them the freedom to speak their mind on topics. Though, people can use this anonymity as a way to vent out their hatred towards other racial groups and use the internet as a shield. With the rise of internet use there will be more racism out there and stopping it is hard. Trying to control what people say on the internet is invades their freedom of speech. So in the end, until the government finds a hole in internet anonymity, we have to deal with it.

Sources:

http://www.vice.com/read/heres-whats-happening-on-the-internets-most-racist-forums

http://www.dailyiowan.com/2013/07/18/Opinions/33995.html