>My identity on hackernews is over 11 years old. Creating such an identity with the comment history, connection to a true name, and content over 11 years would be very expensive. Likely more expensive that a fake passport.
You can buy very old accounts on any platform for very cheap. Like under $100 for a 10 year account on a popular platform cheap. Most platforms offer comment editing, and most people don't archive everyone else's profiles nor do they have access to the database to check for consistent changes.
Meaning that if we use your account for example, if someone bought it from you (or it was hacked after inactivity and you don't care for it, etc), they could easily rewrite what they need to paint the picture that your user isn't actually about using your real name, but a pseudonym. Most aren't going to care about this that far anyways, as usernames are easily ignored on most sites, same with comment histories. Just indicating how easy it is to rewrite both of those aspects.
The only platforms where this would be difficult are platforms that already partake in substantial identity verification like Facebook.
On HN you can only edit comments until they're 2h old, only delete them until somebody responds. Editing history as you've described would require admin privileges. Good luck getting that for $100.
This assumes that platforms never change policies and that admin privileges are expensive and impenetrable. Neither are true, as we've already witnessed multiple times now across various platforms.
No, it doesn't. I'm not speaking of "platforms." I'm speaking of exactly one platform that has an extremely small admin crew. Buying your way to a rewritten history on HN is highly implausible. Hacking, perhaps, but I'd expect that this community has been rattling those doors for the platform's entire existence.
You can buy very old accounts on any platform for very cheap. Like under $100 for a 10 year account on a popular platform cheap. Most platforms offer comment editing, and most people don't archive everyone else's profiles nor do they have access to the database to check for consistent changes.
Meaning that if we use your account for example, if someone bought it from you (or it was hacked after inactivity and you don't care for it, etc), they could easily rewrite what they need to paint the picture that your user isn't actually about using your real name, but a pseudonym. Most aren't going to care about this that far anyways, as usernames are easily ignored on most sites, same with comment histories. Just indicating how easy it is to rewrite both of those aspects.
The only platforms where this would be difficult are platforms that already partake in substantial identity verification like Facebook.