We need online anonymity.

Over the past few days, Conservative MPs have begun to stand up an call for an end to online anonymity, requiring social media platforms to verify I.D.

I believe that this is dangerous and that, as someone who understands the reach and power of social media, I must campaign against this proposal.

Big Tech already have too much power. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, Twitter’s banning of President Trump, Facebook’s data harvesting from it’s apps and your phone. We have already given too much power and information over to the likes of Zuckerburg and Bezos.

Neither of these individuals share our values and neither of them are dedicated to personal security. If you have the Facebook app on your phone, and haven’t changed the security settings, you have already given Zuckerburg the ability to see what you do outside of his app. His company owns Whatsapp, Instagram and many more. Most of the world now communicates through his tools, including our government and cabinet. If we are to rule that online social media accounts must no longer be anonymous then we must rule that people give their identities over, further, to big-tech. We will be putting more power in to the hands of the world’s most powerful, a group of tech giants who have done conservatives no favours so far. Right now a few men in California have the ability to know more about you then you know about yourself. They are unaccountable to the UK government and out of reach of our security services. I do not want to see UK citizens have to hand over yet more personal data to these men, in the name of ‘security’. I cannot see a way of making this law work without Big-tech having the data. Anonymity protects marginalised groups, conservatives may come to depend on that. I ask myself, and Conservative MPs, ‘What is hate-speech?’.

A Conservative government may define hate-speech differently to a ‘woke’ Corbyn government. I fear that at some point in my life, of which I have much left to live, the UK will see a left-leaning government that criminalises may of my views.

Being pro-life, supporting traditional marriage, holding Christian beliefs. These are all views that are already labelled as hateful by many, including some in the House. It would only take one ‘woke’ government to define them as illegal and to see them banned online. We’ve already seen conservatives flee Twitter after the ban of President Trump, they fled to Parler in the name of ‘free speech’. I trust Priti Patel and the Conservatives to allow me to express my views and beliefs online. I do not trust a Labour government to do the same. Any power that we hand to ourselves, we hand to all future British governments. Online anonymity is also important to groups such as the LGBT community. For many, online is the only place they can live in safety and be themselves. Forcing social media accounts to be identifiable will be to put groups like these at risk. They will loose an important meeting place and support network and they will be at risk of ‘being outed’. I ask what would happen if a group of religious extremists, or a rogue state such as Russia or China, got hold of a list of ‘closeted’ British citizens? There are many examples of companies who now enforce a ‘social media policy’. These policies state that someone can be fired for their online activity, if they are identifiable. I know people who have lost their job due to an unrelated tweet. As a Christian and a conservative I fear a world where all online accounts are identifiable. It would put people’s jobs at risk and the ‘shy Tory’ would become the ‘silent-tory’. We’d lose any culture war for fear of losing our livelihoods.   We will be one data breach away from disaster. Following on from my above mention of rogue states, I fear that removing online anonymity will put the nation at risk. We know that China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and others engage in cyber-espionage. We know that UK citizens are targets, as are our MPs and diplomats. We know that companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Twitter are regularly attacked in searches for personal information. Data breach, after data breach, after data breach, makes the news. In March 2019 600 million Facebook users had their data stolen. In April 2019, 540 million, in December 2019 309 million. The numbers rack up fast. The British people rejected I.D cards, in part because we rejected the idea of an over-reaching government as well as the idea of a mass-centralised database. It is estimated that 66% of British people use Facebook. That’s 43.5 million people who could be forced to hand over their identity. If China knew they could get that information, linked to data on people’s online habits, then they would go for it (if they haven’t already got it). We’ll see our MPs blackmailed, our Diplomats put at risk and our citizens abroad arrested for speaking against the CCP. Why would we want to create this risk? It’s unenforceable. If Facebook, Twitter and others comply with the UK government and force the end of anonymity then users will flock to another app.

I do not believe that the UK government has the will to act like the Chinese Communist Party and to begin to block apps. By bringing in this law we will be joining the ranks of China, who’s citizens movements are monitored by the state every waking hour. People are locked up for opinions that contradict their leader and foreigners are not allowed to use certain online platforms. We do not want that here and we cannot enforce this. Facebook doesn’t answer to anyone, let alone our small Westminster parliament. They don’t have to turn up to give evidence at a committee. The US won’t extradite Zuckerburg or Bezos. We won’t ever ban platforms such as FB when 66% of the UK uses it. Similarly, we won’t be able to stop the abuse moving to other platforms. One can easily create an anonymous email and send threats if they wished. Burner phones can be used to leave threatening voicemails. The postbox is anonymous. The dark-web hides many dirty secrets and we already fail to police that. We won’t be able to enforce this new law. Our police are already stretched too thin. There are many more points that could be made, however I end with this practical one and hope that I am being sensitive. Sir David was not brutally murdered by an anonymous Twitter troll. He was savagely taken from us by a known Islamist Extremist who was on our nation’s anti-terror watchlist. However our security services remained unable to keep and eye on him or to prevent him. I read, only today, that the ‘prevent’ programme hasn’t even been running in-person but is now operated through online courses! I hope this is not true. When our police and security services are already stretched to thin, when our MPs are already struggling to get the protection they need, the last thing we should do is give the police more work. We need our police on the beat and not chasing a tweet. I do not believe that you, I, or anyone in the world of politics will be made safer by the removal of online anonymity.

Online abuse is vile, it's rampant and it causes harm. But the proposed law isn't the tool we need.