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How ethical is anonymous online bashing?
By Lauren | September 22, 2009
Folks who caught my appearance on The Today Show last week may have picked up a point that passed quickly in a lively conversation. During our discussion, Kathie Lee Gifford observed that the Internet has created new venues for rudeness where people can make poisonous comments in chat rooms, on message boards and commenting on blogs and articles. Many of those venues allow and even encourage participants to use “handles,” cute pseudonyms that disguise their identities. Cloaked in anonymity, people feel free to make outrageously vicious remarks that would never pass their lips in a face-to-face conversation.
Kathie Lee’s point was that such rudeness online seeps into other aspects of our daily lives, and she was right. Having thought about it since, however, I believe there’s another aspect to anonymous online rants that deserves debate. Is it ethical for people to make such postings or for Internet venues to provide the vehicles for them? I think not.
Back in 2007, Whole Foods Market founder John Mackey became the center of a scandal when it was revealed that he had posted hundreds of messages on Yahoo’s finance message boards over an eight-year period, hiding behind an alias to praise himself and denigrate his company’s competition. The Mackey scandal has long since blown over but anonymous online bashing continues, and that’s a shame. If we don’t know who’s writing nasty comments, how can we be sure what’s really motivating them? As the Mackey incident demonstrates, a talented writer with sufficient time and motivation can do a lot to damage the reputation of an individual or a company. If harm is to be done, at least we should know who’s doing it and why.
It’s not the place of the government to regulate online commentary. The First Amendment prohibits excessive governmental restriction of free speech, and it would be a serious mistake to relax that prohibition. But it might well be wise for private entities to think twice about permitting commentators to hide behind pseudonyms on their message boards. If people want to express their opinions, that’s great - and they should put their good names behind them. We demand increasing transparency from our governments, corporations and charities. Shouldn’t we ask the same of ourselves?
Topics: Business Ethics, Personal Ethics, Social Ethics, business communications, ethics |
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:33 pm
[...] presents How ethical is anonymous online bashing? posted at The Business Ethics Blog, saying, “Free speech is the hallmark of a democracy, but [...]
October 7th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
I agree with the website as being a bomb shelter type location where spineless drones can spend hours cutting down others and even quoting unoffical sites as if they are gospel(even accuracy of gospel is questionable) To assist in improvement on any topic showing the proper way versus showing something wrong is far more beneficial to all.