To grasp what is wrong with them we first must ask what the benefit is. That is, why would a person want to have an anonymous account? I can think of two reasons, though of course there may be more. The first, and rarest of all, is the desire to not distract from the content one posts. If, for instance, I’m a professional basketball player and my desire is to encourage young players, I might fear that readers would focus on the author rather than the words penned. Second, and likely the virtually universal reason for having an anonymous account, is the desire to avoid getting into trouble for what one says.
This second group could easily be divided into two subgroups- those who are seeking to avoid accountability to bad guys and those seeking to avoid accountability to good guys. Some anonymous posters may have a perfectly legitimate fear of the club of cancel culture wielded by the left. I’ve experienced that, losing a job I cherished in the secular realm because professing believers “outed” me for sins both real and imagined. I had the job for all of two days. Not once, however, did I ever have a regret for anything I have posted that is faithful to the Word of God. When God sent prophets into the storm He didn’t have them wear a fake nose and glasses. Jesus didn’t preach from the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are you when you avoid persecution for My name by hiding your name.”
Then there are those who use fake names in order to avoid accountability to the good guys. This can be ideological. Suppose a leader in a conservative Bible-believing denomination decides to speak in defense of homosexual marriage, or a Roman Catholic priest wishes to speak out in favor of abortion and against celibacy. These men could very well lose their jobs. And they should. If they are right on the issue but too cowardly to speak in its defense, said cleric is a hireling. If they are on the wrong side of the issue and to cowardly to speak in its defense, they are a wolf.
Our propensity, just as it is with respect to politics, is to accept the behavior from those on our side while denouncing it from those on the other. Pseudonyms, and anon-accounts however, are a failure on both sides of the aisle. Our propensity, because we are self-interested sinners, is to make ourselves the arbiter of who are the good guys and who the bad when it comes to accountability. A fake account from someone who is in danger looks exactly like a fake account from someone who creates danger.
I like how Shane Morris of the Colson Center put it on twitter- “If you’re a dude who works at Starbucks and you’re worried your conservative opinions will get you cancelled, why is it so important to share them thru an anon? And if you’re a teacher, writer, or pastor…why are you hiding what you believe?” My counsel, which comes complete with my real name, is that no one ever give the time of day to anything said anonymously.