Deprioritize User Identity

While many platforms intentionally facilitate exchange, coordination, and communication of users in ways where identity is a central part of the exchange (dating platforms for example), on other forms of online interaction, particularly commerce, the interaction need not center (or even reference) user identity in order to fulfill its core function. This is most common in purely commercial exchanges online, like short term housing rentals, peer to peer taxi services, job boards, or marketplaces for goods or services. 

Since the capability of discerning identity characteristics is a prerequisite for online discrimination or sexual harassment, platforms that don't have identity as a core part of their function should consider how they can limit users' ability to represent themselves on the platform. De-emphasizing identity covers a range of possible interventions, like the omission of features like profile pictures, using users' initials rather than names, or at one extreme, omitting users' ability to represent their identity at all. Removing emphasis from identity can better center focus on the core value proposition of platforms - enabling more uniform and distraction-free access to the services that platforms enable.