From Patrick on Wikimedia Commons

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg declared privacy dead last January, and now Facebook product designer Julie Zhou is agreeing with him. She made the case against online anonymity in an Op-Ed in yesterday’s New York Times about online trolls titled “Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt.” Zhou even goes so far as to quote Plato:

“That mythical ring gave its owner the power of invisibility, and Plato observed that even a habitually just man who possessed such a ring would become a thief, knowing that he couldn’t be caught. Morality, Plato argues, comes from full disclosure; without accountability for our actions we would all behave unjustly.”

Zhou equates trolls to sufferers of road rage: Protected by your car — or a pseudonym and avatar — people are more likely to say hurtful, fallacious, or outright stupid things. On the open web, people are (mostly) free to say whatever they want with little to know consequence. On a social network, though, there is more personal accountability. As you might expect Zhou echoes her company’s stance on privacy, writing:

“At Facebook, where I’ve worked on the design of the public commenting widget, the approach is to try to replicate real-world social norms by emphasizing the human qualities of conversation.”

Everything you do on Facebook can be traced back to you, with your name, picture, location, and even a brief bio. And I think they’ve got the right idea. The beauty of the internet is its ability to connect people—for users to immediately interact with real people from all over the world, with real thoughts and real responses—not to drive a wedge between them during a comment thread flame war.

In today’s world, one of the quickest easiest ways to build a global reputation is through the internet. For those of us trying to build business reputations anonymity is counter-productive. Commenting is all about networking: You comment on someone’s blog, they comment back, their readers seek you out, and you are on your way to building an audience. But if you remain anonymous and make inflammatory comments like, “This guy has no idea what he’s talking about,” without backing it up with some supporting evidence, no one is going take you seriously or interact with you (unless they feel the need to tell you you’re an idiot right back).

So to those who say that the internet needs to remain anonymous, I have to ask, why? If you’re going to comment on a blog, an article, etc., stand behind what you’re saying. Be willing to accept someone’s comment or email to your response. If you’re not ready for that kind of interaction then why are you bothering to comment at all? Providing actual feedback and stimulating intelligent conversation is what commenting is supposed to enable in the first place. Why wouldn’t you want to be a part of that?