Should democracy require real names?

Dear Reader,

Is anonymity strengthening democracy — or quietly eroding it?

In this week’s Saturday essay, I explore a question that has moved from the periphery to the centre of German politics. Friedrich Merz has called for a Klarnamenpflicht on social media — a requirement that users post under their real names.

Civil liberties groups are outraged. Libertarians are alarmed. Comparisons to China quickly followed.

But if we truly believe that social media platforms are the public square of the 21st century, shouldn’t that square have some basic rules? Drawing on the Athenian agora — where citizens spoke as identifiable members of the polis — I argue that the real debate isn’t about punishing trolls. It’s about rebuilding trust in the public sphere itself.

Could Germany build its own publicly owned digital agora? And would Germans even be willing to use it?

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As always, thanks for reading.

Best,
Jörg