Suomi24 is an advocate for freedom of speech and allows everyone to express their true opinions. This would not be possible if people were forced to use their own names. Some topics, like religion, sexuality, politics, etc. are so sensitive for most of the writers who have a need to express themselves that using their true identity is simply not an option.
A significant part of Suomi24 users also live in small communities where almost everyone knows each other. These people have a lot to say online and in some cases their words might harm their life in their home village.
For part of the people, open communities and forums are the only way to connect to other people and be able to be socially active. Most powerful discussions take place when different opinions confront. They might be very sharp and also hurt someone, but our job is not to censor these conversations. And in a small country like Finland, forcing people to use their own names could in some cases lead to similar results.
It is also worth remembering that names people use online may not have any relation to their true identity (unless some strong identity checks are made during the registration process), so just forcing users to use a name doesn’t actually guarantee anything. At the same time pseudonyms can be well known online and have a strong identity, reputation and a trackable history behind them, so is there really sense in not acknowledging this?
These thoughts were published first in the my.nameis.me pages.
