The United States of Anonymous

"Anonymity is more than just about the ability to express oneself. It is a privacy concern."
I am not a law student or a lawyer, I picked this book up because I'd like to be more informed about free speech and anonymity. I got especially interested in what the internet does to our privacy after reading Edward Snowden's memoir, so I think this one was a great follow up.

The author is a cybersecurity lawyer and a professor so the book is more meaningful to people in the justice world, but I'd like to give my opinion as a regular reader.

The book starts by explaining how anonymity started off in the U.S from the colonial times and how it developed until today. The internet provides us with more anonymity (does it?) and therefore, it's influencing the world we live in. Undoubtedly, anonymous speech helps free speech by great measure. Many people who wouldn't speak up otherwise, finally have a platform to express themselves anonymously. But there's always a dark side to everything, there are also people who use anonymity to harm and bully others.

Compared to the rest of the world, the US apparently is the one nation that protects the right to anonymity more than all others. In the EU, they value more the privacy laws and there's this one case that blew my mind: there's a person using a teenage boys photo to get dates online. When the father of the kid sues to get this person's identity to sue them, Finland justice denies it because of privacy concerns. In the US, these cases usually go by weighing the benefits of anonymity and the consequences of it. Which makes much more sense obviously.

It was a genuinely interesting read for me. I've never thought about "the culture of anonymity" before, and what it creates. I agree with the author that nations should do whatever they can to protect it, of course to a limit. How many authors have used pseudonyms to write legendary books? Imagine they didn't have the right to do that. Anonymous speech and sharing of ideas also helped America create the democracy it has today, starting from the colonial times and distributing anonymous pampleths.

If you want to know more, you've got to read the book. Regular reader comment: yes, sometimes I was too tired to understand all the law lingo, but I didn't dwell on it and kept on reading.