The Greek government plans to ban anonymity on social media, Euractiv reports, citing government officials who say that in ancient Greece, people would express their opinions openly by name.
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Greece plans to ban social media anonymity to combat toxicity, harassment, and character assassination online.
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Greek officials argue anonymity enables fake news and threats, undermining democratic debate before 2027 elections.
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The government wants real identities linked to pseudonyms but hasn't specified technical implementation measures.
Dimitris Papastergiou, the Greek Minister of Digital Governance, told journalists that his country, often dubbed the cradle of democracy, should strive to shape a new form of digital democracy.
“The major problem behind anonymity is toxicity – anyone, especially on social media, can smear an individual and carry out character assassination without facing any consequences,” he told Euractiv at the Delphi Economic Forum.
The main argument is that while social media has become the primary hub for debate, national political debate online usually descends into harassment, fake news, and threats hiding behind the veil of anonymity.
Euractiv notes that Greece will hold national elections in 2027, and campaigning has unofficially started in the Southern European nation.
While calls to end anonymity online are hardly new, Minister Papastergiou called to find a way to require platforms to identify user accounts, adding that “there are many technical ways to achieve this.”
However, he did not specify what these measures could be.
Several European countries want more identification online, usually pointing to the need to verify age in order to prevent minors from accessing certain services. However, technical measures have so far been met with skepticism.
EU lawmakers previously backed social media age limits, proposing bans for children under 13 and parental consent requirements up to age 16. The United Kingdom took an aggressive stance under its Online Safety Act, requiring porn sites to implement age checks by mid-2025.
Earlier this month, Cybernews wrote that hackers managed to break the EU’s age verification app in minutes, suggesting that safely verifying identity online might be more challenging than it initially appears.
Pavlos Marinakis, the Greek Deputy Prime Minister, added that the government has no intention to abolish pseudonyms or monikers. However, the government would like to see monikers corresponding to real persons.
Meanwhile, the Digital Minister told Euractiv that major social media platforms obviously wouldn’t want to remove billions of duplicate accounts, as this helps corporations to sustain their businesses.
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“However, we must do what we are committed to – safeguarding democracy and fostering a public sphere free from toxicity, which we see spilling over into society every day,” he told Euractiv.
Many tech companies are grappling with the newly energized push to ask users to identify themselves. For example, the major American social platform Reddit is considering introducing age verification to get rid of bots.
On Reddit, news of potential verification sparked an uproar, with users threatening to quit the platform, which one Redditor described as the “last bastion of social media.”
Others raised concerns that it could turn into surveillance technology.
At the same time, the role of bots in peddling misinformation is well-documented and is further powered by AI. Researchers have recently warned that swarms of human-imitating AI agents could be used to manipulate societies at a level that threatens democracy.
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