ORG responds to Prince William’s comments about danger of anonymity online

Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group said:

“Anonymity online can be very important, for instance for whistleblowers, journalists and people seeking to read banned information where facts and opinions are censored.

“Without anonymity there would be no Paradise Papers. I’m sure Prince William did not mean to suggest that we should undermine the right to know about the excesses of the super rich and the corrupt, but that needs to be understood when we think about how and when anonymity is necessary.”

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When speaking in a video for the Royal Foundation’s Taskforce on the Prevention of Cyberbullying, talking to two people both of whom have suffered because of online abuse, Prince William said “We are still responsible for our own actions online. This anonymity […] is really, really dangerous.”