Another brief thread on one of the bad aspects of ‘real names’ policies. There are things that we discuss on here that can cause a lot of stigma - and yet the discussions on here are critical. One of these is mental health. 1/n

Having mental health issues is something that can have a big impact on people - and can cause a lot of stigma and worse. Employers may cause trouble. You may be subject to abuse and worse - and yet you really want to get support, discuss things with a degree of privacy. 2/n

Social media allows these discussions to take place. There’s an important mental health ‘community’ on Twitter, for example. There are people who experience issues, there are experts in how to help, there are people who can help you access help. 3/n

And yet this sort of community *relies* on the ability to have at least a degree of anonymity. People are far less likely to open up - either to seek help or to provide help - if they have to use their real names. Forcing real names would deeply damage this community. 4/n

These are often precisely the people that ‘anti-trolling’ policies should be protecting. They are often the kind of vulnerable people who are the targets of the trolls - and this ‘anti-troll’ policy would damage them, by chilling speech, restricting access to help and worse 5/n

If you’re advocating ‘real names’ you need to think more about these communities - and this is just one example of a wide range of groups who would be damaged by this kind of policy. /end