'Authenticate all real humans': Will Elon Musk end anonymity on Twitter?

Take a look at Elon Musk's tweet, which came at the same time as news that Twitter had accepted his takeover bid.
He hits all the right notes.

Sample the following bit: "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated..."

The tweet also had a short list of other goals – Making Twitter better than before by enhancing the product with new features. Making the algorithms open source to increase trust. Defeating the spam bots. And, authenticating all humans.

In particular, the last goal, the one about authenticating all humans, has set off a lot of speculation over Twitter, not helped in the least by the fact that no details exist at the moment about how Musk proposes to do this. And, there are legitimate and serious concerns involved.

Take a look at what one leading expert has said on the issue, that too quite fittingly over tweets.
 
Jeff Kosseff, an associate professor of cybersecurity law at the US Naval Academy, tweeted that there was at least a chance that authenticating all humans could compromise a Twitter user’s ability to be anonymous.

Now, Kosseff made it clear that he wasn't sure about what this stated objective specifically meant. However, with that caveat, he explained some of the concerns that could arise.
Kosseff pointed out that at least some high-profile commentators had interpreted the ‘authenticating all humans’ plan as banning of anonymity or requiring ID verification.

Why would that be bad? Kosseff explained that Twitter’s pseudonymity had made it possible for many people to speak publicly when they wouldn't have the luxury of speaking under their real names on Facebook. He gave the example of the LGBTQ community, whistleblowers, and political dissidents, among others. Kosseff said that even if people could still post under pseudonyms, the collection of identification data at registration would shut out many people.

Pavan Duggal, cyber law expert and advocate at the Supreme Court of India says Twitter is an intermediary under IT Act 2000 and it is not obligated under the law to collect sensitive user data for KYC. Twitter also not barred from collecting such data. As such this could help govt attribute specific tweets to specific people, he says.

Mind you, this is one interpretation, among others, of what Musk might have meant. But, many Twitter users are still worried.

Note that Musk has called spam bots the ‘single most annoying problem’ on Twitter. Even if Musk literally meant authenticating a Twitter user as human, it is not necessary that all methods Twitter could adopt to do so would have a negative impact on user privacy and anonymity.  

According to Devangshu Datta of Business Standard, detecting a bot is easier than authenticating a human. Bots have high volume, focused tweeting, and they are often set up by the same or contiguous IP addresses. And all of this is easy to analyse and detect, says Dutta, by using sophisticated methods like analysing language etc. When trying to detect humans vs bots, it’s easier to focus on the bots, he says. 

But, why would people jump to such a conclusion? After all, Musk could simply be suggesting that Twitter’s verification system be modified.

All the speculation might be arising due to the political context, especially in the West. Take the example of the United Kingdom. During the pandemic, there have been growing demands in the UK to prohibit anonymous social media accounts, with the belief that anonymity provides a cloak to those engaging in online abuse and racism, among other hate speeches. This is an opinion shared by many across the world.  

However, research has shown that people are still likely to abuse each other over social media even if they don’t enjoy anonymity.

As of February 2021, Twitter has 15 million users in India.
What Musk means when he says ‘authenticating all humans’ will have consequences for many of those who depend on anonymity to engage in sensitive political, social and religious matters online.    
 
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