When news sites, after years of hanging back, embraced the idea of allowing readers to post comments, the near-universal assumption was that anyone could weigh in and remain anonymous. But now, that idea is under attack from several directions, and journalists, more than ever, are questioning whether anonymity should be a given on news sites.
The article mentions that the Washington Post and Huffington Post are in the process of revising their policies. Other news organizations are also noted in the article.
If commenters were asked to provide their real names for display online, some would no doubt give false identities, and verifying them would be too labor-intensive to be realistic. But news executives say that merely making the demand for a name and an e-mail address would weed out much of the most offensive commentary.
Perhaps what's said in the paragraph directly above this one is accurate but we're not so sure. As we all know as soon as someone comes up with a system that could solve or in this case at least help in solving it, others develop a way a around it or to manipulate to a degree that it's no longer useful.
Whatever the case, the article is an interesting read.
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