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Anonymous Blogging in Arabia
During the past month or so, an interesting topic has been seeing a lot of light in the Arab blogosphere- anonymous blogging.
The first mention of Arabian anonymous blogging was in an article by Jihad al-Khazin on Dar Al-Hayat in June 2005, where he said in reference to the Jordanian blogosphere:
وكان الأردن بين أول الدول العربية التي نشطت في مجال البلوغز، خصوصاً ان الحكومة تشجع استعمال الانترنت، وهناك بلوغ باسم «جوردان بلانت» يجمع عدداً من البلوغز الأردنية. وثمة أسماء كثيرة تنشر مع البلوغز، ولكن لا نعرف على وجه التحديد إن كانت أسماء حقيقية. وفهمت أن بلوغز كثيرة مجموعة تحت سقف «جوردان بلانت» هي لناس يعيشون خارج الأردن.
Jihad al-Khazin recently wrote another article on anonymous blogging:
اكثر ما يقلقني، شخصياً، هو قدرة صاحب المدونة على كتم هويته، مما يفتح باباً عريضاً للتساؤل هل هو من يقول؟ وهل هو من البلد الذي يدّعي مواطنيته؟ وهل نيته سليمة فعلاً، أم انه يبث دعاية سوداء ضد افراد أو دولة بعينها أو دول؟ وهل يعمل منفرداً، أم انه جزء من جهاز للتشويش على بلد ما، او تحويل الانظار عن بلد آخر وما يرتكب من جرائم؟
That is the one side of the argument on anonymity. Haitham Sabbah agrees, “If a blog is anonymous, we need additional validation that it is okay to trust this blog. The more critical the issue, the more validation we need. In fact, for some really high stakes issues like our politics, religion, social issues, etc.. there may never be enough validation to trust an anonymous blog. When someone is giving you a political, religious, social, etc advice, you need some solid indices that it is okay to trust them.”
George at toot also has a similar opinion, “Why would someone blog and allow people to read her/his blog if she/he doesn’t want to be known? Wouldn’t it be better to use closed groups or forums? How can it be a personal blog with no identity? And how does this promote freedom of expression in our region?”
On the other side of the argument, both anonymous and non-anonymous bloggers disagree. Mahmood Al-Yousif of Mahmood’s Den says, “Learned gentlemen should know better than to attack all anonymous bloggers and commentors as incredible simply because he doesn’t know their names. What does it matter? Shouldn’t we just concentrate on the idea that person has brought forth and evaluate it on its own merit rather than demand to know who the person is, his lineage and religious and political affiliation before we accept that the idea proposed is acceptable or otherwise? Or even merits discussion? If this is a criteria, then aren’t almost all printed authors, especially first-time published ones, anonymous? Of course they are, but we do read their books and articles and evaluate those ideas on their own merit before we reach our own individual conclusions.”
Khalaf, a Jordanian anonymous blogger, rises up to defend anonymous blogging, ”In real life I express the same thoughts that I blog quite freely. However, in real life I have the ability to judge what to say to whoever I am dealing with. In real life, my audience is not anonymous. On the internet, my readers are anonymous, and so am I. If people want to accept what I say, fine. If they don’t, that’s fine too. My only ambition is to make people think. They don’t need to know who I am to do that.”
Interesting. So what is your stance on anonymous blogging?
8 Responses to “Anonymous Blogging in Arabia”
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January 6th, 2006 at 7:45 am
Anon Bloggers and Credibility
The issue of anonymous bloggers and credibility was always a problem, specially when a blogger is critical on issues that touches public opinion and controversial matters by nature.
Yesterday, Jihad Al Khazen wrote an article at Dar Al Hayat (Arabic)…
January 6th, 2006 at 7:56 am
There is a big difference surely between anonymous blogging and deliberate misrepresentation of identity. We have recently seen instances of a certain superpower paying the mainstream media and journalists in a particular country to place favourable items. Couldn’t blogs also be used as a way of manipulating impressions of eg how the so-called “Arab street” or elite in a certain country views say the regime, or the policies of certain Western countries? Particularly given the interest the Western media is showing in Arab bloggers and how they react to crucial development in the region. Some argue that it doesn’t matter who the bloggere “really” is as long as he is expressing views with which they themselves agree. A “more the merrier” attitude. But I see deliberate misrepresentation, perhaps for purposes of fitting the writer’s undisclosed agenda, as a kind of breaking of trust between writer and reader and as an abuse of the blogging medium. (Maybe it is naive to have any such trust!) On the other hand, some degree of anonymity is essential in certain cases.
January 6th, 2006 at 9:49 am
[…] Roba […]
January 7th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
I don’t know why all this debate and confrontaion is all about, wither I prefer to be anonymous or not is my choice….
as for validation this is not up to me, it’s up to the reader….!!!
and I have to point out that even when your not anonymous you don’t have the authority or validation as an anonymous blogger simply becuase the type of media that we use ie. blogging is not controled or for that matter trusted as news papers or news agencies that prodcast via T.V. radio, or print….!!!
and why most of the bloggers that tackle this issue are categorizing other bloggers who are anonymous….!!!
can’t there be a different group who enjoy blogging just for the hell of it….!!!
I as well as many other bloggers don’t need to expose our identities simply because people will see the posts and opinions based on what your background or name or status is, and mostly will overlaps the ideas expressed to focus on the reason we post…..!!!
we don’t hide behind nick names or fake pics, and we don’t do an effort to hide our identities, you want an example…
in kuwaiti blogging community, many of us do gather around in non formal gatherings, most of us do know each other from real life…
you need validation on religious issues or other life determining choises then my friend your in the wrong place…. you shouldn’t be taken it from blogs or from some one in the internet even if that person has shown you his identity….
so what if he posts with his real name or whatever…. does that mean that they are responsible for their opinions or your choice based on what they said…..!!!
of course not…
I don’t think that being known is a key to talk about taboos or political issues, if that was the fact then why do the majority of the jordanian blogs don’t venture through these topics….!!!
thanks again for your moderate oppinion about the issue and hope we come to a preferable conclusion….
p.s. if you want to know an anonymous blogger then why don’t you approach them, or ask them, I’m pretty sure if your valid enough to be trusted, the anonymous blogger would show you who he is…..!!!
January 7th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
forgot to say one last thought….
in order to have a clear idea on the subject we should first agree on the definition of “anonymous”…..?!?!
January 8th, 2006 at 3:39 am
… its the comfort of people knowing the blogger without pre-judging based on his nationality, race or social background.
using an alias, people get to see who i am; free of any preset perceptions or presumptions in a material-and-stigma-free world (hopefully)
I use an alias - but that never stopped me from revealing my identity and meeting (in person) several bloggers (including some of the most notoriously anonymous ones in the region)…
January 9th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Anonymity is often necessary for bloggers who wish to make information public but for whatever reason (e.g. non-disclosure contracts at work, conflicts of interest) can’t do it under their real-life identity. I don’t see that as being a huge barrier to validating the information because as critical readers we should be analyzing all media for hidden agendas, spin, misinformation and sloppy research. Plenty of mainstream news outlets use “anonymous sources” or “senior government officials” as the basis for their articles, so how is that really different in terms of validation? One never really knows, so one must always be vigilant and critical.
For anon bloggers, credibility has to be built up over time and is generally based on whether or not their insight is useful and can be corroborated by other sources of information (as opposed to their name or organization). The agenda (or lack thereof) is usually apparent after sustained reading.
On our blog, some prefer to use aliases while others choose to use their real identities. There are usually very good reasons for this, usually involving sensitivities in real-life interactions and/or country of residence.
February 18th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Anonymous blogging “calls into question the efficacy of activism when the activists refuse to even show their faces.”
Read more: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/776/sc5.htm