Social Media Driver Licenses - Why We Need Them
It's time to use your real name.
“Have you read the YouTube comments lately? ‘Man that’s gay’ gets dropped on the daily.” The rapper, Macklemore, dropped this line in 2012 on the song Same Love. Since then not much has changed on social media in terms of speech.
If anything, it has gotten worse. In addition to hate speech, many social media platforms amplify misinformation, blatant lies about anything from election results to COVID-19, and even suicide methods on forums like Reddit.
Social media platforms have little incentive to stop it. They only lose money from policing speech. Oftentimes, the more hateful the speech, the more engagement it gets. People click when agitated.
Many people want the social media platforms to do more. But most would also probably agree that companies like Facebook (or Meta) should not be the purveyors of truth in society. We probably don’t want the government playing this role either.
So where does that leave us?
The social media user. If someone wants to publish a post or comment on a social media platform, require a social media driver license. Use your real name.
Similar to how you need a driver license to drive on a public road, you should need one to post or comment publicly on social media. Restrictions could be enforced based on age, history of infractions, and other considerations. For example, we should consider at what age it’s appropriate for children to start using social media, similar to minimum age requirements for driving, smoking, and drinking alcohol. In many ways, social media use by children may be even more dangerous than those activities.
If people were forced to use their real names when posting a YouTube comment, for example, they may be incentivized not to be inflammatory. Their comment could be identifiable to family, friends, and employers. Of course, there will still be assholes, but their real names and true selves would be visible to everyone.
This would humanize the internet, at least a little. While there will always be an Alex Jones deploying disinformation or a Joe Rogan spreading misinformation, a social media driver license would create positive incentives for most social media users.
Some might counter that it would curtail free speech and increase security and privacy risks. As detailed further below, posting or commenting under a real name should not limit what you have to say. If you are not comfortable tying it to your real name, maybe you shouldn’t be saying it in the first place. A real name requirement also does not increase security or privacy risks. The requirement is simply for your real name, not your physical or email address. For most of us, all of this personal data is readily available online anyways thanks to the unregulated market for selling and using your personal information.
Exceptions could be made for copyrightable works of art where pseudonyms may be justified on platforms like Medium. Any exceptions should be limited though so as not to swallow the general rule requiring social media driver licenses. Without this type of rule requiring social media platforms to “Know Your User”, hate speech, misinformation, and disinformation will continue to proliferate unabated online.
Know Your User
Most financial institutions have to comply with “Know Your Customer” requirements. These help financial institutions identify potential terrorist financing, drug trafficking, and other illicit activities. While not perfect, the requirements work to keep dirty money out of the financial system. They require banks and other firms to refrain from facilitating or perpetuating illegal activity.
Social media companies should be required to adopt a similar model. Although the purpose would be different - instead of rooting out illicit financing, the goal would be improving the internet’s incentive structure and cleaning up the hateful and untruthful garbage. By requiring social media companies to “Know Your User”, they would be forced to illuminate some of the darkest corners of the internet and require many of the hate mongers to reveal themselves.
Lessons Learned From Facebook
Facebook (or I guess, Meta) has had a real name policy for years. While it has not completely eradicated hate speech, everyone can identify their crazy uncle. Of note though, many people and companies can bypass this requirement by disseminating hate speech or misinformation via Facebook Pages or Groups. These are the types of exceptions that swallow the social media driver license rule - if you create a community for social media discourse, it should be clear who created it and who participates. Real names.
Facebook has also had a series of challenges with their real name policy. Many Native Americans, drag queens, and other groups who have long or unique names ran into issues getting their accounts approved. It appears Facebook has streamlined their real name approval process in recent years, but the challenge remains for any social media platform adopting this type of policy.
Safety and Privacy
Some argue that a social media driver license or real name policy would provide an easy roadmap for identity thieves, hackers, or any other internet criminals. They might even call it authoritarian and point to similar requirements in China.
The proposal here, however, would not be government-administered. Large social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit would have to comply with the requirement. Similar to how we had to put controls on laissez-faire capitalism (i.e., free for all capitalism) because of market failures, we need to do the same on social media. Untruths on social media circle the globe multiple times before the truth can get its boots on. Social media companies are the gatekeepers and need to understand who is posting and commenting on their platforms.
Others might point to the information technology risks. Databases of real names might be gold mines for hackers as it was in South Korea over a decade ago. The proposal here, however, does not rely on government websites or contractors, but on existing infrastructure within sophisticated social media companies like Twitter and Reddit. While it may not be hackproof, we should be able to reasonably rely on the information security of the largest technology companies in the world, many of whom already have troves of our personal data already.
For the skeptics, remember that safety and privacy concerns also cut in the other direction. When abusers can hide behind fake names or profiles, they have free license to bully with impunity. Look at what happened at the end of the most recent Formula 1 season when driver Nicholas Latifi crashed, changing the dynamics of the race that ultimately influenced the outcome. He received death threats, in addition to other forms of cyber abuse, on Twitter and Instagram. Both sites permit users to go by any name they want.
Safety concerns exist in other contexts as well when people are permitted to use fake names on platforms. Uber and Lyft drivers have been shot and killed by passengers who do not use their real identities.
Passengers . . . can create accounts using false names since the apps don’t require them to disclose their identities. Unlike drivers, they aren’t required to upload photos, which makes it easier for wrongdoers to pose as passengers or misuse existing accounts.
For applications like Uber, Lyft, and other driving and delivery services, customer background checks might even be warranted. While platforms like Twitter probably don’t need to go that far, requiring social media driver licenses would increase the overall safety online. Anyone making death threats (or worse) would be readily identified.
Free Speech
The other primary argument against a real name policy or social media driver license is that it would curtail free speech. Basically, people will not feel as free to express themselves in a post or comment - even if they have something legitimate to say - if it is tied to their true identity.
If you feel that way, you should ask yourself why - is it for fear of losing your job if your employer saw the post? Judgment by friends or family? You should really question your motive for posting or commenting if you feel self-conscious about putting your real name on it.
As mentioned earlier, there should be exceptions for copyrightable works of art. So if you do want to express yourself anonymously, you should still be able to, but in a more formalized manner. The one-off posts or comments that can easily spiral out-of-control in the powder keg environments of Twitter and Reddit demand real names. This is where the vile and dangerous content spreads. But if you want to make a sequel to Mein Kampf, be my guest. Just don’t expect me to read it.
Resolving the Censorship Debate
Western democracies, particularly the United States, are struggling to combat hate speech, misinformation, and disinformation online. We should not have a policeman for the truth, whether it’s Twitter or Trump. We need to promote freedom of speech and expression, but also realize that those rights have reasonable limits and are not absolute.
Instead of engaging in a losing exercise of defining “truth”, why not test social media driver licenses? Force social media platforms to “Know Your User.” Force social media users to use their real name. Limit exceptions like Facebook Pages and Groups that allow people to easily skirt rules by posting under group monikers like “Stop the Steal.”
It just might clean up the discourse enough where we won’t need to debate about who will (or should) censor the internet. The safety risks to the victims of death threats, cyberbullying, and hate speech far outweigh the added risk posed by requiring people to use their real names. A good identity thief already has enough at their disposal. We also need to do something - anything - to stem the tide of misinformation and disinformation proliferating the modern internet. Social media driver licenses are a start.