Anonymity
Aemula Writer Spotlight - 2.6.25
In curating the below articles, we noticed a common theme — all of the authors have chosen to remain anonymous. Writers seek anonymity for various reasons, such as to protect themselves from professional or political retaliation, to ensure their ideas are evaluated on their own merit, or to safeguard their privacy in an era of digital surveillance. To some, it is simply a preference.
Yet, when every digital interaction leaves a trace, maintaining anonymity has become increasingly difficult. Despite this challenge, privacy and identity protection remains essential to fostering open discourse, intellectual independence, and free-flowing information.
Building Anonymous Trust
In today's digital media environment, establishing credibility and trust as an anonymous writer presents a unique challenge. Without the ability to leverage personal networks to grow an audience, it can take years to develop a reputable brand and gain traction. Anonymous writers will often seek validation from trusted third parties or selectively disclose personal details to demonstrate authenticity and expertise, but establishing trust remains an uphill battle.
Even with these precautions, personal identities remain vulnerable to exposure — for example, The New York Times’s threat to publicly reveal the identity of Scott Alexander, the author of Slate Star Codex who now writes Astral Codex Ten.
True digital anonymity is exceptionally difficult to maintain. Every online interaction generates metadata, which ad-supported platforms continuously track and index to refine targeted advertising. Additionally, savvy internet users can trace and uncover hidden identities over time. The risk of identity leaks has led to the emergence of privacy services like DeleteMe — recently endorsed by Taylor Lorenz to protect her family members from doxxing — which proactively guard against identity tracking. However, even with proper data security, when you are in the business of consistently sharing digital information over the course of many years, readers can begin to piece together a full picture of the individual on the other side of the screen.
Fortunately, building trust in an securely anonymous environment no longer relies on traditional methods. With recent innovations in cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs, individuals can now verify credibility, authenticate expertise, and build reputations without exposing any personal data. From the privacy of our own devices, we can confirm our identities and credentials without sharing sensitive information. We can then publicly share the verified, anonymous proof for the community to assess, enabling online platforms to promote and reward high-quality, factual content without requiring the sensitive data of all their users.
The Importance of Anonymity
Often, when discussing anonymity, identity protection, and personal data, most consumers shrug off the benefits. Many people simply do not worry about their personal data being accessible online. Outside of protection for financial accounts and critical passwords, the average internet user is ok with the level of data tracking used to support targeted ads and digital footprints. To most, digital anonymity is just a preference, often outweighed by the convenience of personalized online experiences.
However, it is important to note how vital anonymity is to professional reporting and investigative journalism. Globally, we are witnessing an increase in the persecution of journalists and informants. Local guides and sources have stopped reporting out of fear for their lives in the event of their identities being leaked. If we want to ensure that we are able to distribute critical information publicly, we have to rely on anonymous informants, whistleblowers, and private sources. Sharing valuable information typically comes with high stakes, and identity protection can mean the difference between life and death.
A platform that is able to natively offer this protection to all users is necessary if we aim to truly solve the issues facing today's media landscape. For the majority, this is a hidden feature working in the background, and they will likely choose to disclose their identity anyway. However, when it matters most, anonymity can be cryptographically ensured.
This week, we are highlighting three intriguing articles across genres. The through-line is that each of these authors remains anonymous while generating quality, engaging content. Aemula aims to encourage more people to speak freely and share their expertise, and more people are willing to take this leap when their identity is protected.
Mechanisms too simple for humans to design
From Telescopic Turnip, written by “Elmer of Malmesbury” (pseudonym), self-described as:
“from continental Europe but temporarily live in the East Coast of one of the Americas. Without compromising my anonymity, I can tell you that I work either as a researcher in some natural science, or as a penguin breeder. You decide. My academic h-index is 7 (although I’ll forget to update this) and my Erdős-Bacon number is 9. I have an IQ of 49, according to this online IQ test based on the correlation between reaction time and IQ (I blame my old laptop’s trackpad).”
“Imagine the X social network, but with a little modification: tweets are generated by natural selection. In this version, you cannot write new tweets – instead, whenever someone pushes the "retweet" button, it is replicated imperfectly and a few characters might be changed at random.
With every retweet, there is a small chance that the changes will make the tweet slightly better. A better tweet is more likely to be retweeted, and the process repeats until the tweet evolves into the most viral, unstoppable incendiary hot take ever.
(You are welcome to implement this website. Suggested name: X-chromosome)”
Side note: We did implement this website… Check it out!
Algorithmic ranking is unfairly maligned
From DYNOMIGHT INTERNET NEWSLETTER, which feeds from dynomight.net
“What does “algorithmic ranking” bring to mind for you? Personally, I get visions of political ragebait and supplement hucksters and unnecessary cleavage. I see cratering attention spans and groups of friends on the subway all blankly swiping at glowing rectangles. I see overconfident charlatans and the hollow eyes eyes of someone reviewing 83 photo she just made her boyfriend take of her in front of a sunset. Most of all, I see dreams of creative expression perverted into a desperate scramble to do whatever it takes to please the Algorithm.
Of course, lots of people like algorithmic ranking, too.
I theorize that the skeptics are right and algorithmic ranking is in fact bad. But it’s not algorithmic ranking per se that’s bad—it’s just that the algorithms you’re used to don’t care about your goals. That might be an inevitable consequence of “enshittification”, but the solution isn’t to avoid all algorithms, but just to avoid algorithms you can’t control. This will become increasingly important in the future as algorithmic ranking becomes algorithmic everything.”
The Trump-WSJ Tariff Debate Pt 2
From Unraveling Economics, written by “an economics PhD student at a top 20 program”
“While the Journal is largely vindicated in their criticisms of Trump’s tariff policies, they too err on several points. They argue that the rising trade deficit with China is evidence that attempts to decouple from China are failing. But as we’ve seen, tariffs have helped America decouple from China with respect to certain goods and more general tariffs could help more broadly. Additionally, the Journal cites a NBER study to argue that tariffs played no great role in America’s economic development (That debate is far from settled.) and uses the overworked example of the Hawley-Smoot tariff to demonstrate the damage that can be caused by tariffs, despite Hawley-Smoot’s insignificant role in bringing on the Great Depression (See Eckes, 1999). Ironically, the NBER article cited by the Journal has a much more subdued take about tariffs. They find that “it is difficult to argue that the high- tariff policy [during America’s industrial development] was costly and inefficient”.
The extreme positions taken by Trump and the Journal are both wrong. Tariffs will never alone reinvigorate the American economy, nor will they doom us to another depression. The reality is a lot more boring. Despite all of the heated disputes surrounding them, Trump’s tariffs just didn’t have much of an impact. Aside from a brief reduction in the bilateral trade deficit with China and reducing reliance on China in some product markets, little changed. Outsourcing continued at its regular pace. Consumer prices didn’t rise appreciably. And the growth of manufacturing employment tapered slightly.”
Interested in cross-posting your content to Aemula? Reach out to writers@aemula.com to get started! With cross-posting, you can:
Instantly expand your audience
Increase your earnings
Maintain full ownership of your work
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