Amid unrest, a hard new look at online anonymity

Some people have undoubtedly forgotten that in the years before Facebook's fast ascent, social media was dominated by anonymity: handles worthy of CB radio, vintage AOL screen names trailed by strings of numbers, LiveJournal IDs bookended with the x's and o's of emo-kid culture. And there was a sense that in this odd and very public new medium, it wasn't safe to use your real, full name.

Thanks to Facebook, and founder Mark Zuckerberg's personal philosophy, that's changed. What Facebook did, with a policy that requires proper names and the initial restriction of access based on proven university or company affiliation, was bring the idea of "real identity" to the mainstream Internet. In general, that's been considered a good thing; but in the wake of widespread antigovernment protests across a number of Middle East and North African countries, the Facebook philosophy is facing a sharp challenge as critics suggest that a real-names-only policy could see pro-democracy activists targeted individually by autocratic governments.

A "digital freedom" nonprofit called Access Now is leading the charge, launching an online petition this week called "Unfriend the Dictators" to encourage Facebook to rethink its policy. An explanation on Access Now's site reads: "Facebook should be congratulated and condemned in one go: They've built a revolutionary platform that's catalyzed the political change sweeping the Middle East and beyond, but Facebook has also become a treasure trove of information for dictators, allowing them to identify and track down those who oppose them."

As the protests in the Middle East move beyond Egypt and Tunisia to the brutal reign of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, who has made threats of serious violence should opposition continue, the question becomes more pressing: Should Facebook bend the rules if it might save lives?