By Dennis D. McDonald

Something I hinted at in May 28’s Using AI To Help Research Online Anonymity and Political Speech was the need to investigate the importance of online anonymous commenting in promoting online misinformation.

My assumption has always been that, ceteris paribus, online anonymity promotes the spread of lies and deception at the expense of civil and truthful discourse.

A recent news article in the magazine SCIENCE suggests the need for more research about my assumption. In Tiny number of ‘supersharers’ spread the vast majority of fake news, Kai Kupferschmidt reports on research that says a disproportionally large number of online “shares” of misinformation are actually the output of a fairly small percentage of users. That is, the people sharing most “misinformation” on one platform (Twitter, now X) are actually a small proportion of that platform’s users:

Less than 1% of Twitter users posted 80% of misinformation about the 2020 U.S. presidential election

But here’s the rub: the researchers tracked the “retweets” of misinformation for a sample of those who were retweeting misinformation pulled from those who were posting under their own names and locations, i.e., not anonymously.

Another surprise: 58% of these “bulk misinformation retweeters” were older females.

Astute analysts reading this will be quick to wonder a few things about the research reported in the Science article:

1. Do anonymous users reshare more disinformation than non-anonymous users?

2. How do we define terms like misinformation and disinformation?

3. Do sharers of misinformation believe what they are re-sharing?

4. Were we to look at the creation of misinformation, as opposed to just its resharing, what would be the difference between anonymous and non-anonymous users?

5. A common response I’ve gotten online to why people post anonymously is that they are afraid of retribution by those on the “other side.” For example, Trump supporters say they are afraid of attacks by “liberals,” while "Democrats” fear attack by Trump supporters.

That last item above worries me. If people are afraid to voice their opinions, how can we have meaningful discussions about the future of democracy in the US?

For myself, I have never attempted to disguise my online comments or publications. I make no bones about my support for free speech, democracy, respect for the law, and equal rights for all. Yet for over 20 years I have never experienced a brick through our window in response to something I said online. Should I now start worrying?

Copyright (c) 2024 by Dennis D. McDonald