Fake Identities in Social Cyberspace: From Escapism to Terrorism

Personation, the act of assuming another's identity with the intent to deceive, is an ancient phenomenon. In this article, the authors seek to research online impersonation and to uncover the causes of this phenomenon. They do so by analyzing and comparing several case studies while referring to more traditional concepts of social identity. As discovered, on the one hand, users can create fake identities to enhance their personalities for personal reasons such as voyeurism or as means of escaping reality, or even promote human rights by avoiding local authoritarian censorship. On the other hand, malicious users like terrorists or criminals manipulate online users with phishing attempts and frauds, making social cyberspace less secure.