Uploaded July 2009 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
This Spadecaller video entitled "Spinhead's Sock Puppet Theater" presents many of the peculiarities that come with the anonymous exchange of controversial topics online.
On many social websites that provide forums for discussion about leading social, political, religious, and current news topics, guidelines for conduct are agreed upon at the time members enroll. Should members defy the terms of use, site managers sometimes are forced to discontinue a participants membership. Generally these guidelines prohibit unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, and obscene conduct. Behavior that victimizes, harasses, degrades, or intimidates an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability constitute infractions that can lead to a members expulsion.
Many of these websites have difficulty upholding these guidelines because they simply do not want to pay for the monitoring that they require. Banned members often enroll again under new names with new IP addresses. These sock puppets infringe upon the rights of others and often register multiple accounts. Consequently, sites that cannot manage these sock puppets eventually lose those members that seek opportunities for civil discourse. And, by this process, extremist elements erode meaningful discussions and the quality of debate as the site turns to juvenile bouts of name-calling, personal attacks, and stereotypes. The value of sharing online can be constructive and bring understanding between people of different views and backgrounds; conversely, it also can become a destructive force that fosters intolerance and incites violence. In light of the recent increase in hate crimes and domestic violence in the United States, I thought this video might be of interest to some who are concerned members of various online forums.
This Spadecaller video entitled "Spinhead's Sock Puppet Theater" presents many of the peculiarities that come with the anonymous exchange of controversial topics online.
On many social websites that provide forums for discussion about leading social, political, religious, and current news topics, guidelines for conduct are agreed upon at the time members enroll. Should members defy the terms of use, site managers sometimes are forced to discontinue a participants membership. Generally these guidelines prohibit unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, and obscene conduct. Behavior that victimizes, harasses, degrades, or intimidates an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability constitute infractions that can lead to a members expulsion.
Many of these websites have difficulty upholding these guidelines because they simply do not want to pay for the monitoring that they require. Banned members often enroll again under new names with new IP addresses. These sock puppets infringe upon the rights of others and often register multiple accounts. Consequently, sites that cannot manage these sock puppets eventually lose those members that seek opportunities for civil discourse. And, by this process, extremist elements erode meaningful discussions and the quality of debate as the site turns to juvenile bouts of name-calling, personal attacks, and stereotypes. The value of sharing online can be constructive and bring understanding between people of different views and backgrounds; conversely, it also can become a destructive force that fosters intolerance and incites violence. In light of the recent increase in hate crimes and domestic violence in the United States, I thought this video might be of interest to some who are concerned members of various online forums.
