Facebook’s Chatroom App To Bring Back Danger Of Online Anonymity?

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The always-changing Facebook has another new plan in the works.

The social media giant reportedly plans to bring back the '90s chatroom days with its new free app called Rooms, according to CNN.

Although the anonymity that these chatrooms allowed back in the day has its benefits for those who appreciate not adhering to Facebook's "real name" policy, it might bring attention to the dangers of remaining anonymous on the internet where all sorts of people are perusing content of different kinds.

In August, there was reportedly a case when a Detroit man was indicted on charges of posing in an online chat room as a teenage girl to mislead a 16-year-old boy into sending him nude pictures and explicit videos of himself, according to the media outlet Detroit Free Press. Even though Facebook's new chatroom app might be giving people the opportunity to have the freedom to share interests with people all around, it might also invite dangerous cases that come with chatrooms that still emerge frequently.

Despite these dangers, the new Rooms app might be the next step for Facebook to allow its users to be "whoever you want to be" on the internet, according to Josh Miller, the leader of the team that created Rooms within Facebook's Creative Labs incubator unit.

"One of the magical things about the early days of the web was connecting to people who would never encounter otherwise in your daily life," wrote Miller, according to Forbes.

He continued, "Forums, message boards and chatrooms were meeting places for people who didn't necessarily share geographies or social connections, but had something in common. Today, as we spend more time on our phones, primarily to communicate with friends and family, the role of the internet as a 'third place' has begun to fade."

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