Google to Make Anonymity Harder

Google is trying to discourage anonymity in YouTube comments – which usually digress to detestable, chauvinistic, and sexist territory – by asking users to use their real names before posting comments and uploading videos.

Now YouTube has rolled out a new feature in which a pop up box will be displayed to the user whenever he/she tries to post a comment. The box will contain the users’ current, pseudonymous identity, along with their real name given on Google plus.

In a dialogue box, users will be asked to “start using your full name on YouTube”. Users, however, are not bound to follow the instruction but if they decline, they will be directed to another dialogue box that asks to give a reason for it. Six options will be displayed in front of the user. These are, “My channel is for a show or character,” “My channel is for personal use but I cannot use my real name” and for the overwhelmed or dubious, “I’m not sure, I’ll decide later.”

A YouTube representative commented on the new policy as, “Note that it is not only for commenting – YouTube users with existing Google+ profiles see this option when they comment or upload a video.”

This is not the first time Google is fighting with the anonymity issue. Last year, the search engine giant fought an ultimately unsuccessful battle to stop users from using anonymous/vague profiles on Google plus. However, it eventually had to go back after severe criticism from different groups.

YouTube said on their official blog that this feature has already been introduced in March and has now been extended to current users. Google+ users are already bound to provide their real names just like many other social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, but YouTube is entirely different and it is not an identity-based site. YouTube was created with the purpose of promoting content, enabling people to create a channel of videos and other stuff, as opposed to getting the identity of the user behind the computer.