From the story: "The Internet really amplifies everything," says Jeffrey Cole, of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. "We have a lot of opinions out there. All of a sudden there's a place we can go to share them." Add to that the freedom that anonymity provides, he says, and it "can lead to a rowdy Wild West situation, with no one to filter it. My guess is that if you went back to these people, a lot of them would have second thoughts." And if you asked them to add their name, as in a traditional letter to the editor? "They'd be embarrassed." Read more..
Moderating the comment section of a blog can be a challenge. One local paper in Butler County confirms the identity of each letter written to the editor, and the letter can be refused for false or slanderous accusations. But the same paper has online letters posted on their web page that do not face such limitations, where accusations can be made behind the cloak of anonymity. Some web sites, such as PoliticsPA, eventually removed their message board because of abuse by anonymous posters. Another popular political web site, GrassrootsPA, changed their message posting policy to require a valid email address and moderator approval before posting.
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