1. Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Daegon Cho Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University June 15th WEIS 2011 at George Mason University

2. Research Background (1) 2  Anonymity on the Internet  (Pros) Freedom of speech  (Cons) Cybercrime  (Mixed) Privacy Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho Anonymity  “Internet space in our country has become the wall of a public toilet. Widespread verbal abuse on the web has become a growing social problem, and efforts to stamp it out have become a government priority.” (A member of South Korean National Assembly) (The New York Times, 10/13/2008)  Real name verification process was applied only in the election-relevant boards in 2005.

3.  An witness took a picture and posted it.  Within hours, her picture was everywhere on the cyberspace.  Within days, her identity and past were revealed and shared. Research Background (2) 3  Dog ‘Poop’ Girl case (2005) Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho  Most networked country  Precursor of the internet trend?

4. Real Name Verification Law in S. Korea 4  Features (July, 2007)  Applied to 35 websites in which daily viewership is over 300k  Only verified users can post  Verify user’s identity with Resident Registration Number Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho  Strengthened in 2009 to 153 websites. (Daily viewership: 100k)  Highly disputable nowadays  Constitutionality issue

5. Research Question 5 Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho  Is Real Name Verification Law effective?  Which types of users are most affected? User Group# of postings Light User 1 2 Middle User 3 4 ~ 10 Heavy User 11 ~ 15 16 and more Abuse and defamation Freedom of speech  Tendency to participate  Use of swear words  Antinormative behaviors

6. Related Work 6 Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho  Anonymous, pseudonymous, and identifiable conditions Mostly based on experimental designs The law provides a perfect condition to use real data. Unlinkablility Unobservability Real name in on & offline  Deindividuation and Computer-Mediated Communications  Encourage to express vs. Enhance to follow social norm AnonymityIdentification : Nickname Hard to trace : The link between pseudonym and real identity Unlinkable PseudonymityPublic Pseudonymity

7. Setting 7 Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho July 2007 Real Name Verification Law 6 months January 2007January 2008 60 days 3 weeks  Content analysis  34 swear words & 585 antinormative expressions  “Text mining and filtering methods”

8. Data Collection 8 Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho  Site 1: Postings and participants (2005-2010)  The most popular online discussion forum of a top portal in South Korea. (Political issue board)  “Crawling and parsing”  2,024,274 postings by 207,124 nicknames  Focus on periods around the law implementation

9. Results (3-week participation) 9  The change of postings and participants (3-weeks)  Average daily postings: 477 → 379 (t-statistic: 2.28)  Average daily participants: 124 → 115 (t-statistic: 1.08)  Limitation

10. Results (60 days & 6 months participation) 10 Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho  Participants  Postings 60 days6 months 60 days6 months χ 2 = 1.67, p-value=0.89 χ 2 = 15.72, p-value=0.007 χ 2 = 13.90, p-value=0.016 χ 2 = 46.38, p-value = 0.000 Average monthly # of users Participation is not associated with the law. Average monthly # of postings

11. Comparison (participation) 11 Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho  No impact in other equivalent websites  Site 2 (Real name posting under the law)  Site 3 (Nickname posting, not subject to the law) Average monthly value

12. Results (Change in swear words) 12  The decrease in swear words both short term and long term  More impact on Heavy User Group χ 2 = 26.99, p-value=0.000 χ 2 = 49.14, p-value=0.000 # of swear word postings / # of total postings in each group 60 days 6 months Average monthly swear words

13. Results (Change in antinormative expressions) 13  The decrease in antinormative behaviors in both ST and LT  More impact on Heavy User Group χ 2 = 75.57, p-value=0.000 χ 2 = 112.65 p-value=0.000 # of swear word postings / # of total postings in each group 60 days 6 months Average monthly swear words

14. Results (Individual’s behavioral shift) 14 Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho  Limitation of the previous method  Randomly selected 41 users’ 1,677 postings  Read by two coders  Antinormative behaviors were reduced, but the gap between two periods was smaller than the earlier results.

15. Conclusion 15 Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho  No impact on participation  User participation relies on the topic of discussion.  Reduction in Swear words & Antinormative behaviors in the long term  Higher impact on Heavy User Group  If one of the policy goal is to reduce bad postings, this seems to be achieved. But, more analysis is required.  By the way, do we really need this legal enforcement?

16. Future Research 16 Real Name Verification Law on the Internet: A Poison or Cure for Privacy? Presented by Daegon Cho  Recently implemented Facebook commenting system  Posting with real name vs. Posting with nickname

17. Questions or Comments ?