YouTube set to tackle trolls head on

This is interesting. YouTube is trying to take on the trolls by taking on their biggest weapon: anonymity.

The world’s most popular video-sharing site has very quietly introduced a dialogue box that opens up when you’re about to post a comment.

Here’s the kicker though, if you don’t want to post as yourself, YouTube will go ahead and ask you why. The possible options include “My channel is for a show or character” and “My channel name is well-known for other reasons”, but according to Betabeat, nothing even resembling “I just want to remain anonymous”.

The video-sharing service does however say that it’s still possible to remain anonymous:

We realize that using your full name isn’t for everyone. Maybe people know you by your YouTube username. Perhaps you don’t want your name publicly associated with your channel. To continue using your YouTube username, just click “I don’t want to use my full name” when you see the prompt.”

It also told Betabeat that it started rolling out the option to users about a month ago and that it has other uses too: “Note that it is not only for commenting — YouTube users with existing Google+ profiles see this option when they comment or upload a video.”