I hadn't heard of Electronic Frontier Foundation until I read Little Brother. It’s mentioned in the book, and I noticed in the author’s bio that Cory Doctorow previously worked there. On its website, EFF calls itself “the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world”. Since I’m writing a blog about intellectual freedom for this class, I had to check out their page on bloggers’ rights. I was particularly interested in their statement that the First Amendment guarantees bloggers not only the right to free speech, but to anonymous speech. We’ve been reading about free speech protection under the First Amendment, but I hadn’t thought about the right to speak anonymously being a protected right. They cite a case in which the Supreme Court ruled that it is, writing: “Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse...Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical, minority views...It exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation...”
Some libel lawsuits, however, are challenging the rights of individuals to speak anonymously online. USA Technologies recently sued two individuals who criticized the company’s management on Yahoo! message boards. They attempted to get the posters’ identities from Yahoo! using a subpoena, and EFF helped stop that. There are limits to what you can publish online anonymously. Crossing the line into actual libel could mean that you’ll be forced to go public, but I agree with EFF that people shouldn’t be bullied by bogus lawsuits. They shouldn’t be afraid to be a critic or speak their mind online.
Information was gathered from the following pages on the Electronic Frontier Foundation website.
Anonymity
Bloggers' Rights
USA Technologies v. Stokklerk
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I can certainly agree with a user's right to speak freely, and anonymously, online; it gives them a platform to make statements they may not otherwise be able to make. It's an easy way to make protests without fear of being shut down. I really don't think people should be threatened by this though. From a certain point of view, how much weight can a protest statement hold that is made anonymously? It can get some people looking in a certain direction, but it probably wouldn't gain as much attention as someone with a name, who is willing to put themselves out there.
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