At the root of most issues we face today around digital free speech is the question of identity. If we could trust that we know exactly who is speaking in an online space, that would greatly diminish many of the speech issues we face today. With better identity in place, the mechanisms that work to moderate real-world speech would offer the same safeguards of accountability and reputation in the digital space.

I have written about this problem extensively over the last few years, as have others. But it is sometimes hard to know what we as a society generally, and the federal government specifically, can do to address this issue now. We can take concrete, easy and broadly unobjectionable steps that would make a big difference.