Internet and Responsibility: A New-ish Moral Conundrum

With the passing of Hurricane Sandy, both in real life and online, a new problem rears its ugly head: the lies spread by anonymous people, and the lifting of their anonymity.

In other words, some jerk maliciously spread lies during the hurricane, thinking he would remain anonymous behind his Twitter handle, @ComfortablySmug.  But someone discovered his real name and wrote about it.  Now the man has quit his job as the campaign manager for a New York congressional candidate and apologized online for his behavior.

Some people think ComfortablySmug should be protected by the First Amendment, and that no one should have outed his name.  Other people want to know why (a reasonable question, in my opinion), and think that ComfortablySmug should be charged for any damage he did.  Either way, the question remains - how do free speech, anonymity  and the Internet go together these days?

I don't have a definite answer to this question.  I know that in some countries, people need anonymity to protect themselves, because their government would arrest or persecute them for dissenting beliefs, thoughts, or ideas.  Even in the U.S., a person who lives outside the societal norm might want or need anonymity to protect their job or reputation.

For instance, ViolentAcrez was a Reddit user who likes looking at very young woman (16 or 17), likes incest,  promotes violence against women, and made a name for himself as a creepy old man Internet troll.  A journalist for Gawker figured out that ViolentAcrez is really Michael Brutsch, a 49-year-old software programmer in Texas with kids.  Since being outed, Mr. Brutsch lost his job.

Now, I personally think that Michael Brutsch deserves whatever he gets, because he spent a lot of time combing through Facebook and other places to find pictures of teenage girls and then repost them without getting permission.  He also started a subreddits called Rapebait, Choke a Bitch, Rape Jokes, and Pics of Dead Kids.

But after Gawker outed Brutsch, several Reddit users called foul, claiming that somehow Brutsch's activities fell under Free Speech.  Well, if Brutsch is covered by Free Speech, so is the article outing him.

Yet, ViolentAcrez and ComfortablySmug are the extreme cases of a person using the anonymity provided by the Internet in a way to do harm.  What about the moderate cases?  What if someone wants to complain about a boss at work, but doesn't want to get fired?  What is a student doesn't like a teacher, but feels scared to air his or her feelings?

When does being anonymous help a person and/or society, and when does it allow for criminals and miscreants to do harm?

(BTW, you can watch CNN interview Michael Brutsch here.)

Watch Out! The Twitter Virus Wants You!

This weekend, I received a direct message through Twitter from a friend of mine.  "Wow!  I guess you didn't realize that they were watching you. {insert URL} " read the generic but intriguing message.  But when I clicked the link, the URL first went to Facebook, then to a copycat Facebook page with a different URL.

Ugh!  I had just been targeted by the Twitter Virus!!!

This particular virus sends direct messages from a Twitter account to people who follow that account, telling the recepient that he or she appears in an interesting video.  The message also helpfully includes a link to the suspect video.  But the video link goes to an imitation Facebook page where you are prompted to enter your Facebook login information.   Also, as soon as you click the link, the virus begins trolling your followers list, resending itself to continue the hack.

If you get one of these messages, DO NOT OPEN THE LINK.  I would also let the sender know that their Twitter account seems to be hacked.  That's how I found out later that my Twitter account was hacked - a very nice person told me about a message that I supposedly sent them.

If you do click on the link or your Twitter account is otherwise hacked, I suggest you take the following steps:

1. Change your Twitter and/or Facebook passwords.
2. Delete any direct messages that contain the virus sent from your Twitter account.
3. Check any application linked to through Twitter.  Do you recognize all of them?  Do any of them use the same password?  If so, change the password.
4. Check any application linked to through Facebook.  Do you recognize all of them?  Do any of them use the same password?  If so, change the password.
5. Change the password on any account that shares the same password as Twitter or Facebook.
6. Check your Facebook security settings to ensure that nothing has changed.
7. Run a virus scan of your computer.