I’ve recently met Angie through a website called “Cloud Girlfriend” which allows two people to make fake identities and chat with each other under those assumed identities. It’s pretty funny and fun, and Angie is as extroverted on the web as I am, which made us get along pretty quickly.

I’m forwarding this to ask you to think about what this could mean for people in nations where freedoms aren’t quite as protected…how important is it to have SOME avenue of anonymity available SOMEWHERE on the web? Typically, I’m largely a proponent as “IRL” and “Virtual” being one in the same with “virtual” simply being considered a separate venue for “real” communique…but this, to me, outlines the importance of having an alternative to that.

angiedarkheart:

Today I was chatting with a man from Iran - IRAN - in a virtual world! It was not the usual Angie talk, more serious and cerebral. At one point he asked why I never had been to Iran. I decided to answer him in all honesty, and I told him that as an American, I did not feel that it would be a good…