Philosophy Wire: The right to oblivion, cyber bullying, stupidity

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2013-02-07]: People are fighting for the right to "be forgotten" as far as the Internet is concerned. The EU is trying to pass legislation which will make all big social media portals (e.g. Facebook) satisfy their users' requests for deleting their personal data if and when they wish so. [source: Stanford Law Review, web news]

Two are the main possible reasons:

1. THE SERIOUS: Cyber bullying. The new trend of our time: Children humiliating other children by posting embarrassing pictures over the Internet. The solution? A sue. And learning not to pay too much attention at what is written on the Internet. And (at least as far as I am concerned) a more aggressive tactic could also suit your needs. As others can easily write things about you, you too can defend your self online (and I know that from personal experience - see here for how I used anti-Kakos articles in my favor). There are many administrative tools which could help you with that. Everything is a matter of the proper point of view.A good training in the use of Internet tools and learning how not to give a damn about idiots could be more useful that our right to oblivion.

2. THE STUPID: Embarrassing pictures we posted our selves on the Internet. The solution: None. If you are stupid you will most probably continue being stupid. And it is a good thing to alert others that you are indeed stupid. Maybe the right to being stupid is more important than the right to oblivion.

Ignorance is the greatest evil of them all.

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