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Judge OKs Anonymous Comments, Blogger Won't Allow Them

By Carolyn Elefant

There are a couple of interesting new posts around the blogosphere concerning anonymous online commenters. The first, over at Volokh, discusses a recent case out of Tennessee, State v. Cobbins, where a judge denied defendants' motion to require a media outlet to disable a portion of its Web site enabling Web users to post comments (mostly anonymous) about the pending case. Defendants argued that the site comments could prejudice jurors. The judge denied the motion for a variety of reasons, noting the importance of the First Amendment rights at stake: The right to speak anonymously extends to speech via the Internet. Internet anonymity facilitates the rich, diverse, and far ranging exchange of ideas. The ?ability to speak one's mind? on the Internet ?without the burden of the other party knowing all the facts about one's identity can foster open communication and robust debate.? People who have committed no wrongdoing should be free to participate in online forums without fear that their identity will be exposed under the authority of the court. Volokh agreed with the judge's decision, finding that the potential harm to the defendants from anonymous comments is fairly low: Whatever one might say about the risk of incurable...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on July 20, 2009 (boomark / email).