La Russa vs. Twitter tests Web anonymity - BusinessWeek
June 10, 2009
For many, part of the appeal of social media sites is that they let users hide behind a cloak of anonymity—be it a thinly disguised handle known only to friends or an alias that lets a person post comments and blogs with virtual anonymity. Some users assume a public persona to comedic effect, such as when Dan Lyons blogged as the (fake) Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs.
But anonymity can take a more sinister turn—say, when a person uses it to create a real perception that they're someone else and then potentially maligns another person's character. A legal battle between Major League Baseball manager Tony La Russa of the St. Louis Cardinals and microblogging site Twitter is testing the limits of a person's ability to impersonate online. It could peel back the cloak of anonymity that propels much user-generated content...
For many, part of the appeal of social media sites is that they let users hide behind a cloak of anonymity—be it a thinly disguised handle known only to friends or an alias that lets a person post comments and blogs with virtual anonymity. Some users assume a public persona to comedic effect, such as when Dan Lyons blogged as the (fake) Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs.
But anonymity can take a more sinister turn—say, when a person uses it to create a real perception that they're someone else and then potentially maligns another person's character. A legal battle between Major League Baseball manager Tony La Russa of the St. Louis Cardinals and microblogging site Twitter is testing the limits of a person's ability to impersonate online. It could peel back the cloak of anonymity that propels much user-generated content...
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