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Comment by zapt02 | Hacker News Reader

The best solution to the toxicity issue of anonymous internet comments I've seen relates to identifying the users. In Sweden there is a country-wide ID system called BankID. You can authenticate towards any website using a mobile app which validates your identity (through your bank).

One of the regional comment platforms has adopted this and requires you to sign in using BankID, thereby confirming your identity.

I don't know if this is solving the problem or if it's just masking it a bit better by introducing a "shame" aspect, but it's working on the sites that I've seen using it.

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The theory that anonymity is the cause of bad comments has been resoundly disproven by the existence of Facebook (and Google+, and Twitter) where people post whatever they like using their own real names.

Furthermore, many people need anonymity: https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Re...

If you don’t personally need to be anonymous, you are privileged; don’t assume everyone else is as lucky.

I believe that China also requires that people's comments online be connected with their physical identity, and I'm sure that's quite effective at stopping people from spreading any unacceptable ideas.

Facebook is full of complete toxic garbage posted by people with their full real identities.

Though this is true, I've noticed the temperature goes significantly down when your true identity is on the line.

I think that depends on your social group. I imagine there are many cases where the heat gets turned up when you know your real-life enemy is online.

So is Twitter.

It means anyone who risks social or professional consequences will self censor. It means a number of legitimate ideas will never enter public discourse because the prevailing ruling ideology will ensure negative consequences (“cancel culture”) for anyone who dares speak up. For those with nothing to lose, this isn’t an issue. For everyone else, the lack of anonymity is tantamount to losing their practical freedom to express themselves.

> by introducing a "shame" aspect

In practice, though, this just ends in ideological witch hunts. If you look at, say, the Twitter comments that got Gina Carano fired from The Mandalorian (and evidently blacklisted from Hollywood), they were actually pretty tame overall, just not in line with the nouveau moral minority.

China has a similar system.

The US won't even mandate ID for voting, requiring verification for internet comments is a stretch.

It's the kind of thing people would say an authoritarian regime would do anyway.

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