Is Identity Verification The Answer to Ending Spam and Fake News on Social Media?
By: Daniel Imbellino
Tags: Social Media, Identity Verification, Social Networking

While social media has long been valued as a place where people can remain anonymous and protect their identities while online, the unfortunate truth is that anonymity comes at a huge cost to both social platforms and those who make use of them. The ability to remain anonymous online and to register social media accounts with no real personal information has done nothing more than bring about the proliferation of trolls, spam, and out of control fake news. Trolls make use of sock puppet profiles to spend their days harassing and threatening millions across the social web, while spammers register millions of social accounts on a whim to hammer major social networks with a never ending barrage of posts full of junk ads and links that lead to malware; and as we’ve seen with platforms like Facebook and Twitter, anonymity is often used a tool to spread misinformation and manipulate public thinking.

For starters, while some may think the idea of forcing social users to provide personal information upon registering for social media seems a little overkill, just realize how many spammers are able to proliferate on social media because of the lax rules surrounding so many platforms. Again, these aren’t just people posting junk ads, but often are attempting to inject malware into your browser to hijack your computer, or to commit fraud by fooling users into actually believing they’re buying a legitimate product or service from a legitimate business, when in fact they’re not.

Just to note how out of control the issue with spam on social media is today, I’d like to note here I personally banned and reported close to 5,000 accounts just for spamming on Google+ over a 3 day period this past week alone! That doesn’t include the thousands more spammers who were banned and reported by my moderators. In the case of just one of our community’s, we banned and reported over 35,000 accounts over the course of this past year alone! And get this, there’s still an estimated 50,000 more posts flagged for review right now!

While we’re able to put the breaks on these bad actors almost instantly once they’re reported, what we aren’t able to do is keep them from creating more new junk accounts to continue their spamming misdeeds. Furthermore, despite our ability to put the brakes on these deceptive social users, we haven’t a clue as to who they actually are. What’s even more concerning is that neither does Google apparently.

Of course, there’s plenty of Federal laws in the U.S regarding spam, but there’s no way to hold those who do it to account if you have no way to tell who they even are. I remember years ago a spammer was fined and arrested for spamming Myspace with millions of junk ads. In that case it wasn’t an easy task for the once dominant, yet now soured social platform to hunt down the person responsible.

And, what about trolls? Often these types of users result to long drawn out campaigns of harassment across social platforms, and the reason they often feel comfortable doing it is for the simple fact there’s no real public accountability for their actions. They can threaten, harass, and demean people all day long, and at worst, have their accounts terminated. But, the one consequence they don’t face is any form of real public accountability for their actions.

That lack of accountability is the whole reason platforms like YouTube are teaming with millions upon millions of junk sock puppet profiles that do nothing other than barf hatred for humanity at anyone who crosses their path.

Likewise, Author Will Burns recently noted in a post on Forbes how the lack of identity verification for social users has also been used as a means for foreign governments like Russia to sow widespread misinformation and discontent among the public, as well as attempt to interfere with our election processes.

You can check out the story on Forbes here: Is It Time To Require Identity Verification For Everyone Using Social Media?

Also, some platforms like Twitter have implemented new ways to help them verify that accounts on the platform do in fact belong to real humans, and that they have some way to identify individuals who register to use their platform. Accounts that don’t have a verified phone number associated with them are often asked to verify. Likewise, Twitter will often randomly ask Twitter users to verify with the numbers they have on file through text messaging. Those who can’t verify remain locked out. Even if you have an associated email tied to your account, they will still ask you to verify by phone from time to time.

And so, going back to the original question, should social users on the web be forced to provide their personal identification to verify they are who they say they are when registering across social networks; and should people be required to put on a public name on their social profiles?

Well, here’s my thoughts on this, the use of social media is a privilege, not a right! Those who spam, spread misinformation with the intent to manipulate public thinking, or who threaten and harass others, probably have no place and no right to use social media at all.

On the other hand, I do believe that people should have a right to protect their identities online, and to remain anonymous across the public spaces of the social web.

But I also believe that the only way to get a hold of the issues I noted above is to force those users, even those who choose to keep their profiles anonymous, to at the very least provide adequate proof of who they are when registering for their use of social platforms. Otherwise the issues with spammers, fake news, and trolls will only continue to persist.

Unfortunately, its things like spammers, trolls, and the perpetrators of fake news that are the whole reason we can’t have nice things without their being consequences for others.

Written and published by Daniel Imbellino — Co-Founder of Strategic Social Networking and pctechauthority.com. Many thanks for reading. Be sure to check out Strategic Social Networking Community on Google+ to connect with tens of thousands of IT professionals and learn effective strategies to grow your social presence online. You’re also welcome to follow Strategic’s brand page on G+ for the latest social media and IT industry news. You’re also welcome to connect with me on Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DanielImbellino

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