“Anonymity is a tool that can be used or misused, but to run from anonymity out of fear is to give up what it means to be American,” says David Weinberger, senior researcher at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
Weinberger notes that airlines have been receiving bomb threats since they first came into existence, usually from callers at old-fashioned pay phones. “As I recall, you didn’t have to show ID to use them,” he says wryly.