Should Domain-Name Registrations Require A Verifiable Real Name? (blogspot.com)

lpress writes: The Internet was a major source of news -- fake and real -- during the election campaign. The operators of fake sites, whether motivated by politics or greed, are often anonymous. We avoid voter fraud by requiring verification of ones name, age and address. A verifiable real-names domain registration policy would discourage information fraud.
"I understand the wish to protect the privacy of a person or organization registering a domain name," argues the linked-to blog post, "but there is also a public interest." ICANN already requested comments on this back in 2015, but I'm curious what Slashdot's readers think. Should domain name registrations require a verifiable real name?

Comments

Re:SuperPACs can go first

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Money doesn't influence elections.

Ohhh, that must be why so many poor people become president.

And that must be why large-money donors and super-pacs pour hundreds of millions of dollars into elections, because it has no influence. No siree, none at all. *cough*

Re:Anonymity

[No Longer an AC]

Damn, I already used all my mod points.

EFF says it better than I could.

It sounds like a good idea to require a real name, but simply for free speech doing so could have chilling effects and work to silence people.

Most of us are posting somewhat anonymously here even though I don't believe it's an impenetrable mask. We build up our own karma (or lose it) and are identifiable by pseudonym so others can judge our credibility based on past posts.

Complete anonymity can lead to complete lack of credibility which is why so few people here pay any attention to Anonymous Cowards at all.

I hope no one takes this as a challenge, but for some random web surfer I would hope it would not trivial to take off my mask. I'm still careful about what I say, but it's unlikely anyone will google my real name and be able to find everything I've posted here or on other sites and that makes me feel free enough to post at all.

If I were of the wrong political persuasion in a country like Turkey right now I would either be afraid to post at all or I would take greater steps to hide my identity for obvious reasons and yet I believe free speech is a basic human right.

Re:Discourage?

[SirSlud]

At this point, the civilized world doesn't need to worry about the government coming at them - they need to worry about the multinationals coming at their government. Trade agreements are good in theory. This is the problem. People look at trade agreements between countries. They are more like agreements that companies want to make, with no particular interest in being fair. Citizens tend to have no particular interest in being fair either, favoring what is best locally. Governments *should* in theory be working towards a general contract as we do locally. Compromises that are beneficial. But people vote for governments or vote for weakening the power governments have over the single minded goal of industry.