Indiana Court: Libel and Anonymity Don’t Mix
Now, THIS is interesting….
Indy Star: Media Must Identify Anonymous Posters
A thorny issue, to be sure. But my initial take is that I like the approach — that if speech can be shown to be false and the cause of legitimate, documentable damage, then anonymity is no longer a privilege.
I find it unsurprising that the commenters on the article are up in arms, an unoriginal response. Many apparently want to retain the right to intentionally post false information anonymously with no penalty. I don’t buy this mindset for one second. It appears that a fairly narrow standard is being established here, and it should be interesting to see how it plays out nationally.
This won’t be the first case of its type, I’m sure.