Zhihu removes the "anonymity function": the fog has dissipated, and an open and sincere ecosystem has reappeared

Zhihu has taken down the "anonymity function". Under the mask of "anonymity", people from different industries and circles can break away from their real-life identities and speak freely in the "utopia" of the Internet. This article describes the relevant content and I hope it will be helpful to you.

As an early product mechanism of the Zhihu community, the original intention of launching the anonymity function was to establish it on the basis of open discussion and friendly interaction among users.

However, as the Internet communication environment becomes increasingly complex, Zhihu stated that "in order to ensure healthy discussions within the community," the "anonymous posting" entrance will be cancelled in the new version, and users will not be able to create questions or post content anonymously.

(Zhihu Announcement)

This change has sparked heated discussions among netizens. Some netizens believe that Zhihu, after canceling its anonymity, is just the afterglow of Tianya, and cannot hide its lonely road.

Some people also support the cancellation of anonymity, believing that Zhihu's anonymity has provided a breeding ground for the spread of false information, cyber violence and other problems on the platform.

The debate over Zhihu's anonymity function points to a discussion about the ecology of the Internet community. Those who support or oppose the cancellation of the anonymity function seem to be taking this opportunity to describe the ideal blueprint of the Internet community in their hearts. Regardless of being anonymous or not, openness and sincerity seem to always be the original genes of "Internet residents."

1. Anonymous “Tree Hole”: An Ideal Country that Breaks the Circle

Zhihu’s anonymity was once the biggest difference between it and other social media platforms, providing a unique stranger social atmosphere. People seemed to be participating in a “masquerade” . Under the mask of “anonymity”, people from different industries and circles could break away from their real-life identities and enjoy greater freedom and a temporary sense of security in the online “utopia”.

"I'm in the United States and just got off the plane. I have conflicts of interest and my circle is too small, so I'm going to remain anonymous." This was a common opening phrase for answers on Zhihu in the "anonymous era". It once became the "Zhihu style" and triggered imitation and ridicule from netizens.

But from this sentence, we may be able to get a glimpse of where Zhihu users' love for the "anonymous function" comes from.

There are many Q&A posts in the Zhihu community about the question "What are some secrets you can only tell anonymously?" These questions have received a lot of attention and interaction. Anonymous interactions of this scale are basically not seen in communities such as Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douban. This question has also been included in the "Must-Reads" list, demonstrating Zhihu's vision for its own platform - an open and inclusive interactive Q&A community.

(Question from Zhihu)

Anonymity conceals social clues such as the social media user's avatar, profile, background page, and historical answers. Not only can onlookers not find the poster through the anonymous answer, the poster himself cannot find the record from his or her historical answers. For those who use Zhihu anonymity, it is like throwing a drifting bottle into the sea and then disappearing into "anonymity."

(Comments from Zhihu users)

With the help of the anonymity function, Zhihu is like a tree hole, carrying the stories that people are reluctant to tell in the real world. For Zhihu's "senior users", its significance far exceeds the cyber tree hole. Zhihu constantly emphasizes characteristics such as "professional", "serious" and "elite" in its brand tone, which also shows that for many users, Zhihu's "anonymity" is a tool to connect different circles and break the "information gap".

(Comments from Zhihu users)

Whether it is telling a tortuous emotional story or revealing industry secrets by the "interested" elite circle, anonymous Q&A actually embodies people's desire to avoid social pressure and protect personal privacy.

Anonymous Q&A is a weak link that is both "isolated and connected". Under the veil of anonymity, speakers and discussants are free from all kinds of scrutiny of themselves and others, putting aside external factors such as gender, occupation, and identity, and focusing more on the discussion of the problem itself.

On platforms without anonymity functions, some netizens have also achieved a certain kind of "pseudo-anonymity" by setting up avatar IDs and other methods. The current "huge" momo trend is a kind of artificial "disguise", where momos try to retain a spiritual reserve in the turbulence of the Internet. With the "anonymity" of Zhihu offline, netizens jokingly call it "the entry into the momo era."

(Discussion by Zhihu netizens)

These real and fake social vests actually express people’s contradictions between “personal privacy protection” and “social connections”, and carry people’s yearning for an “Internet utopia” where circle barriers are broken and everyone can speak freely.

2. The wound of anonymity: Pandora’s box under the veil

Before the anonymity function was shut down, the question "There are ten minutes of anonymity left, what do you say?" topped the Zhihu hot list. Many netizens recalled the "anonymous" years with regret. In sharp contrast, many netizens cheered for the shutdown of the "anonymity" function.

(Question from Zhihu)

Many netizens believe that the "anonymity function" is an important guarantee for the "high-quality content" of the Zhihu community. After canceling anonymity, Zhihu will inevitably follow the old path of "Tianya".

(Answer from Zhihu users)

With the continuous development of Internet culture, the "decline" of anonymous social networking seems to be a general trend, rather than an adjustment unique to Zhihu.

Although "anonymous social networking" has many beautiful ideas, people can put aside all kinds of online and offline social concerns and focus on communicating topics. But in reality, communication between people seems to be more complicated.

In 2020, an anonymous social software called "Popi Question Box" became popular in the circle of friends. People posted their own "question box" links, hoping to receive anonymous questions from friends. Since then, a series of social software claiming to be "anonymous" have sprung up in people's vision, but most of them are like "flash in the pan", and have quickly withdrawn from the social stage within a year or less.

As Zhihu disclosed in its announcement, most of these "anonymous social" software are plagued by problems such as "spreading false information", "harassment and abuse", and "hate speech". The double-edged sword of "anonymity" helps people speak freely, but also hurts some people.

(Answer from Zhihu users)

While satisfying people's sense of social participation, the "anonymous function" may also open the "Pandora's box" of human nature. The "anonymous" function provides users with a kind of "social immunity", releasing the voyeurism and malice that are usually not revealed under the "social etiquette norms".

In the several false information storms caused by the "anonymous function", Zhihu's reputation seems to be getting worse in recent years, and its image has been constantly changing from a professional Q&A community to a "blog" and "story collection". The "Jiangxi 18.88 million high bride price" that once caused a sensation once topped the Weibo hot search list. After causing online debate, it was confirmed to be a false story fabricated by a netizen on the Zhihu platform. Under the topic "What do you think of girls in Jiangxi", an "anonymous user" wrote the story of breaking up with his girlfriend because of the high bride price from a first-person male perspective.

(Related screenshots from Weibo)

Involving multiple sensitive factors such as region, marriage, and gender, different netizens made wild speculations based on this story, which constantly touched the nerves of the public. This incident subsequently alerted relevant departments. After multiple investigations, the imagination of "rectifying sky-high bride prices and restoring fairness and justice" was shattered. This false story was nothing more than "street literature" that repeated the image of "loyalty-oriented" men and "money-worshiping and snobbish" women.

Recently, Huang Yuanpu, co-founder of Yiou.com, "dissed" Zhihu's "anonymous" function under his real name, saying that he had seen anonymous answers on the Zhihu platform such as "Yiou will not survive more than two years, Huang Yuanpu has sidelined the investors" and "I heard that Huang Yuanpu did a very bad job, and the CEO position was taken away by shareholders." Zhihu has no relevant counter-evidence and counter-measures, and the false speculation and fabrication have caused negative impacts on him.

The disguise of "anonymity" makes it easier for people to separate their real selves from their "avatars" in the online world, thereby reducing the psychological burden of posting false and malicious information on the Internet.

The anonymity function creates an "asymmetric" social black box, forming a distinction between the poster who uses the anonymous function and the audience who watch the anonymous answers. However, the design for protecting user privacy has brought new problems. When "slander" and "abuse" continue to increase, the "accountability" of any party is like "seeking the enemy in the void."

3. The disappearance of “anonymity”: How does open community social networking transform?

The removal of the “anonymity” function has sparked discussion, perhaps because it means a transformation of the Internet social model. As many people have said in the discussion, when the unique “anonymity” function is “removed”, what will the future of Internet communities such as Zhihu look like?

Some people believe that the removal of “anonymity” will prevent Zhihu users from speaking freely. It is undeniable that non-anonymity will make people more cautious when speaking, but this may not mean a decline in the quality of communication.

(Answer from Zhihu users)

The answer may be found on the other side of "anonymity". The Internet is still a virtual community brought together by "cyber avatars". The disappearance of anonymity means the return of connection, which means that communication on the Internet is no longer like footprints that disappear without a trace under the snow, but "flying geese stepping on the snow", with traces to follow.

As some netizens have answered, "anonymity" does not affect communication and exchange in essence. Those "secretive" answers certainly add some room for imagination, but they cannot increase their authenticity. As a question-and-answer community, the closure of Zhihu's "anonymity" may make us rethink the nature of Internet social interaction.

(Answer from Zhihu users)

Zuckerberg once said: Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. We strive to achieve this by allowing people to share what they want to share and communicate with who they want to connect with, no matter where they are. "Openness" and "connectivity" are the most original genes of the Internet, and are also the original imagination of the millennial generation about the Internet. The Internet breaks the boundaries of time and space, and knowledge, experience, and emotions are spread among different groups of people with unprecedented efficiency.

However, as more and more people are connected to the Internet, the environment of online communities seems to be getting more and more complicated, and the cost of mutual understanding is getting higher and higher. As Kazuo Ishiguro described: "In a world of technological explosion and unlimited communication, we feel unprecedented loneliness and helplessness. When the whole world can socialize, we cannot achieve truly effective communication in the most primitive way. "

The Internet is constantly iterating and blending with the real world. Regardless of "anonymity" or not, in a complex and ever-changing ecosystem, "positive interaction between people" is the core of building an ecosystem. Peking University Professor Yan Buke's course videos have been widely circulated on the Internet for many years. When the campus network is changed, people outside the campus cannot see the updates of the PPT. The connection and mutual assistance between netizens enable the smooth flow of knowledge.

On its 10th anniversary, Zhihu changed its brand proposition to "Where there is a question, there is an answer." This may reflect Zhihu's insight into the future of the Internet community, and its belief that connections between people will become better because of the Internet community.

The fog has dissipated, “anonymity” has gone offline, but the interaction will not disappear.

Thoreau wrote in Walden: "Every man is an island in this world," and open interaction will closely connect the "Internet natives" into a landmass, where they can coexist harmoniously.

Author: Bald or not

Source: WeChat public account: "Zhizhu.com (ID: covricuc)"