Every so often, people who don‘t really understand the importance of anonymity or how it enables free speech (especially among marginalized people), think they have a brilliant idea: „just end real anonymity online.“ They don‘t seem to understand just how shortsighted such an idea is. It‘s one that stems from the privilege of being in power. And who knows that particular privilege better than members of the House of Lords in the UK — a group that is more or less defined by excess privilege? The Communications Committee of the House of Lords has now issued a report concerning „social media and criminal offenses“ in which they basically recommend scrapping anonymity online. It‘s not a true „real names“ proposal — as the idea is that web services would be required to collect real names at signup, but then could allow those users to do things pseudonymously or anonymously. But, still, their actions could then easily be traced back to a real person if the „powers that be“ deemed it necessary. Here‘s the key bit: