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Numerous recent incidents of personations – fake profiles - on social cyber space (SCS) have raised concerns and criticism on the ease with which manipulation and fraud can be made; cyber-safety has become a sought-after concern. Specifically, a concern over the ease of utilizing fake identities for negative causes like terrorism, crime and disinformation (Dodel & Mesch, 2019; Clifford, 2019; UNICRI, 2020). Cyber-safety has grown to be a concern of many technological companies. For instance, Facebook has shut down 583 million fake profiles in the first quarter of 2018 since they violated Facebook’s policies and terms of service (Griffin, 2018). Moreover, according to the October 2020 homeland threat assessment by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), cyber espionage and cybercrime are among the most probable threats to people in the United States (US) and elsewhere (DHS, 2020).
Interestingly, personation, the act of making and taking a fake identity in order to deceive somebody else is an ancient phenomenon that was used throughout history by writers, critics of the authorities, terrorists and criminals alike. In this article we aim to develop a discussion on the implications and usages of this phenomenon in SCS, specifically social network sites and anonymous platforms like dark webs. Our research question is simple – Why web users use fake identities, and what for? Our attempt to answer this question is achieved through a comparative analysis of various selected cases of impersonation alongside a constant comparison to different variations of fake identities, aimed to discover the key types of fake identities. Moreover, as described further on, the fact that we (both authors) were subject to an attempt of information gathering created the motivation to research and analyze this phenomenon.
We discovered that malicious users utilize SCS platforms to commit negative acts such as fraud, identity theft, espionage, terrorism and other manipulations. Those who once deceived innocent people on the busy streets of our cities are currently deceiving innocent people in SCS. However, it is important to mention that the term “fake” is not dichotomous. Currently, a great number of social network users manipulate and enhance certain characteristics of their identities, their profiles, for personal needs such as means of escaping reality or voyeurism, some find love while presenting only the positive facts about themselves while hiding the negative, some even promote human rights while evading local authoritarian censorship by creating fake identities or using privacy platforms such as the dark web. Even though the great and immediate danger is indeed terrorism, crime and fraud, we have discovered that there are some shades of grey within this phenomenon. That is, cases of escapism can truly benefit the ones who fake it – who fake or enhance their personalities. In some cases, it can be difficult to identify how “fake” a profile is, whether it’s shade is too dark or whether its shade is light enough to be considered socially and legally legitimate.