Anonymity through existing platforms has varying levels of effectiveness. Wikileaks is perhaps known for being the most secure platform in regards to protecting identities. This has resulted from the organization conducting a global search for countries willing to host the service keeping only minimal logs, utilizing the latest technologies in encryption and source obfuscation as well as hiring trustworthy people to handling the administration of operations. The sources who have been outed have mainly compromised themselves through activities such as bragging in logged chat rooms and other such activities.
Yik Yak and 4chan have a lesser degree of anonymity. The administration of 4chan blends with users, sometimes with the moderators playing pranks on the entire site, much like the users do to each other and outside parties (such as Poole using a word filter to change each occurrence of "egg" to "duck" across the entire site). It is thought, and even sometimes encouraged, that some administrators perform actions such as log reviews and get the Internet Protocol address of users to expose their true identity. Both Yik Yak and 4chan have a track record of cooperating with law enforcement in some efforts, many times again releasing the Internet Protocol address of users. Beyond application insiders, there is also the practice of "doxing", or attempting to expose the true identity of unknown users by practices such as hacking accounts, garnering information (such as image metadata) and cross correlation in establishing patterns of activity. These exploits, although able to be mitigated, lessen the degree of anonymity and therefore increase the fear of reprisal in posting.
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