My basic point is this: if you see someone acting poorly in real life, you can say "hey, buddy, cut it out." But if you see someone acting poorly on the internet, you can do the same... without the benefit of first-hand knowledge of the situation. Worse, if you want to say "die nigger die" but social mores prevent you from doing so in person, the internet gives you all the cover you could possibly want.
The viral megaphone trait of the Internet is a function of the technology itself, and has facilitated tremendous good an ill. Much like technology itself it is neither good nor bad, it just is, and the way we employ it says a lot about us rather than the tool itself I think.
The more I look at it, the more I recognize that anonymity is used far more for doing the things we aren't proud of than the things we are.