Some conditions for when I think it’s appropriate for an anonymous source to make a critical post about a named someone on the forum:
Is the accused a public person or do they run an organization in the EA or rationality ecosystem?
Or: Is the type of harm the person is accused of something that the community benefits from knowing?
Did someone who is non-anonymous and trusted in the community talk to the anonymous accuser and verify claims and (to some degree*) stake their reputation for them?
*I think there should be a role of “investigative reporter:” someone verifies that the anonymous person is not obviously unreliable. I don’t think the investigative reporter is 100% on the hook for anything that will turn out to be false or misleading, but they are on the hook for things like doing a poor job at verifying claims or making sure there aren’t any red flags about a person.
(It’s possible for anonymous voices to make claims without the help of an “investigative reporter;” however, in that case, I think the appropriate community reaction should be to give little-to-no credence to such accusations. After all, they could be made by someone who already has had their reputation justifiably tarnished.)
On de-anonymizing someone (and preventing an unfair first-mover advantage):
In situations where the accused parties are famous and have lots of influence, we can view anonymity protection as evening the playing field rather than conferring an unfair advantage. (After all, famous and influential people already have a lot of advantages on their side – think of Sam Altman in the conflict with the OpenAI board.)
If some whistleblower displays a pattern/history of making false accusations, that implies potential for future harm, so it seems potentially appropriate to warn others about them (but you’d still want to be cautious, take your time to evaluate evidence carefully, and not fall prey to a smear campaign by the accused parties – see DARVO).
If there’s no pattern/history of false accusations, but the claims by a whistleblower turn out to be misleading in more ways than one would normally expect in the heat of things (but not egregiously so), then the situation is going to be unsatisfying, but personally I’d err on the side of protecting anonymity. (I think this case is strongest the more the accused parties are more powerful/influential than the accusers.) I’d definitely protect anonymity if the accusations continue to seem plausible but are impossible to prove/there remains lots of uncertainty.
I think de-anonymization, if it makes sense under some circumstances, should only be done after careful investigation, and never “in the heat of the movement.” In conflicts that are fought publicly, it’s very common for different sides to gain momentum temporarily but then lose it again, depending on who had the last word.
Some conditions for when I think it’s appropriate for an anonymous source to make a critical post about a named someone on the forum:
Is the accused a public person or do they run an organization in the EA or rationality ecosystem?
Or: Is the type of harm the person is accused of something that the community benefits from knowing?
Did someone who is non-anonymous and trusted in the community talk to the anonymous accuser and verify claims and (to some degree*) stake their reputation for them?
*I think there should be a role of “investigative reporter:” someone verifies that the anonymous person is not obviously unreliable. I don’t think the investigative reporter is 100% on the hook for anything that will turn out to be false or misleading, but they are on the hook for things like doing a poor job at verifying claims or making sure there aren’t any red flags about a person.
(It’s possible for anonymous voices to make claims without the help of an “investigative reporter;” however, in that case, I think the appropriate community reaction should be to give little-to-no credence to such accusations. After all, they could be made by someone who already has had their reputation justifiably tarnished.)
On de-anonymizing someone (and preventing an unfair first-mover advantage):
In situations where the accused parties are famous and have lots of influence, we can view anonymity protection as evening the playing field rather than conferring an unfair advantage. (After all, famous and influential people already have a lot of advantages on their side – think of Sam Altman in the conflict with the OpenAI board.)
If some whistleblower displays a pattern/history of making false accusations, that implies potential for future harm, so it seems potentially appropriate to warn others about them (but you’d still want to be cautious, take your time to evaluate evidence carefully, and not fall prey to a smear campaign by the accused parties – see DARVO).
If there’s no pattern/history of false accusations, but the claims by a whistleblower turn out to be misleading in more ways than one would normally expect in the heat of things (but not egregiously so), then the situation is going to be unsatisfying, but personally I’d err on the side of protecting anonymity. (I think this case is strongest the more the accused parties are more powerful/influential than the accusers.) I’d definitely protect anonymity if the accusations continue to seem plausible but are impossible to prove/there remains lots of uncertainty.
I think de-anonymization, if it makes sense under some circumstances, should only be done after careful investigation, and never “in the heat of the movement.” In conflicts that are fought publicly, it’s very common for different sides to gain momentum temporarily but then lose it again, depending on who had the last word.