Hi class, I was very intrigued when Professor shared more about online anonymity and wanted to know more about other’s thoughts on it. However, as there was limited time, I have decided to source for everyone’s opinions through the class blog.

In my opinion, criminals that use it to do harm are not as anonymous as they think, as IP addresses can be traced and most of them are eventually caught. As such, I am of the opinion that it is more good than bad.

Moreover, anonymity is needed to protect the whistleblower’s identity, whose safety can be severely threatened. Many state of things would not be what it is today, if not for anonymity.

However, anonymity brings about a whole new set of challenges for businesses. Unethical competitors are now able to leave negative review/comments. The affected company will then need to spend extra costs and efforts finding out who or whom is the mastermind behind the negative reviews and find ways to expose the truth and remove the unfair review/comments.

Many businesses in today’s world are still not social media savvy enough to handle such crises. As mentioned by Professor Kyu, many Singapore businesses do not believe in using Social Media Engagement. However, what is surprising is that Singapore is the home to one of the most active social media consumers in the world (as shown below). Hence, despite what Singapore business owners might believe in, they are missing out on a great way to leverage their businesses over their competitors.

(Source: http://www.hashmeta.com/social-media-singapore-infographic/)

What are your opinions? Please share them with me in the comments below!

Bibliography:

http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-the-internet-anonymity-good-yes-or-bad-no

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20150309-the-danger-of-online-anonymity

http://sbr.com.sg/leisure-entertainment/commentary/online-social-engagement-lacking-in-singapore