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People have long praised the internet for "giving a voice to the voiceless" - but what is the price for anonymous free speech?

In 2013, a woman named Justine Sacco posted a racially charged tweet just before her long haul flight from New York to South Africa. 

Things took an unexpected turn for the worse when Sam Biddle, a journalist, retweeted her post to his 15,000 followers, and it quickly went viral. 

She suffered a lot of online abuse when people took it upon themselves to socially destroy a stranger under the guise of righteousness, while in fact, they are committing online shaming, which is a common form of cyberbullying.

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So what encouraged millions of netizens to participate in such mass cyberbullying behaviour?

A study by Suler in 2004 suggests that perceived anonymity can lead to online disinhibition effect, where we abandon the social restraints that regulate our face-to-face communications. 

This means that when we are able to conceal our identities easily, we become less empathetic and more critical when dealing with others, especially when the other person is a stranger. 

Others suggest that cyber bullying is actually a learnt behaviour - people are more inclined to bully if they realize that their identity is hidden and that punishments are rare. 

Another factor would be that because the internet operates 24/7, it brings in a never-ending stream of victims and spectators. This may cause bullying to become more common and sometimes incentivized. 

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Victims often stay silent about their sufferings as they feel powerless against the unknown tormentor on the other side of the screen. 

While no physical hurt is inflicted on the victim, cyber victimization is dangerous because it can cause anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts as well as a decrease in self-esteem.

It is so prevelant that even the bullies cannot escape from falling victim to cyber bullying.

Sam Biddle, who finds himself under fire for his own tweet one year later, deeply apologized to Justine when they finally met in person.

He wrote, “If you had a face-to-face sit-down with all of the people you've posted about, how many of those would you do again?"

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Exploring the relationship between anonymity and cyberbullying is important because a lot of studies have shown that anonymity, even if its only perceived, causes an increase in cyberbullying behaviour. 

We must remember that as opposed to physical bullying, cyberbullying inflict cuts not to the body but the mind; 

to remember that anonymity is not a token to torment others, but a protection to give the voiceless a voice; 

and that the hurt caused by the abuse of this privilege is often irreversible, because what goes online, stays online forever.

Thank you.