By Dick Huffman
Special to the Salisbury Post
Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. Libel and slander are not so wonderful. In the online world, people often think they have a reasonable amount of anonymity. Emboldened by this perceived anonymity, people are typing things that they would never type if their name was attached. Although most comments on message boards are constructive voicing of opinions, some comments are mean, vicious and legally actionable. Some people are willing to make malicious comments under the mistaken assumptionthat their identity is concealed.
But that’s not the case. Comments are permanently burned into cyber space, with a unique fingerprint called an IP address. There is a growing trend among those being slandered by anonymous comments to fight back — and the victims are winning.
When Donald and Janet Maxon decided to convert their Illinois home into a bed and breakfast, their local newspaper covered the story. An anonymous commenter called “FabFive from Ottawa” posted that the couple had attempted to bribe the local planning commission. The couple filed a defamation lawsuit, but first they had to find out the identity of the anonymous commenter. The newspaper tried to protect the identity of the commenter, but lost. The Illinois court ruled that the comment was libelous and not protected as free speech. The court ordered the newspaper to reveal the identity of “FabFive from Ottawa.”
In Indiana, the former CEO of Junior Achievement of Central Indiana, Jeffrey Miller, found himself in a similar situation. When a story ran about potential misuse of funds by the nonprofit, anonymous comments on the Indianapolis Star, WRTV, and the Indianapolis Business Journal accused the former CEO of being “greedy” and “committing a criminal act.”
Miller retained an attorney who argued that “the Internet is not a license to defame people and treat them in a mean-spirited way that harms them psychologically and economically.”
The media groups fought to protect the IP addresses of the anonymous posters. They cited the state’s shield law and the First Amendment but lost. Marion County Judge S.K. Reid ordered that the news outlets turn over the IP addresses. Indianapolis Business Journal did so immediately.
It was revealed that several anonymous posters were Miller’s former employees. They were sued, along with their new employers, because the defamatory comments were submitted on work computers during work hours.
After the ruling, Miller’s attorney stated “All it is (is) cyberbullying. And these kind of individuals need to understand there is accountability for that kind of behavior.”
But, this is Illinois and Indiana right? Could the same type of disclosure be ordered in North Carolina? Yes, it could — and it has!
Last year, a news group in Vance County posted a story about substandard housing owned by a former county commissioner. The story resulted in several defamatory anonymous blog comments accusing the former commissioner of being a slumlord who should be jailed. The former commissioner served a subpoena to the local news group requesting the true names of those who posted the libelous comments.
The attorney for the media outlet filed a motion to quash the subpoena, arguing that the shield law in North Carolina and the First Amendment protected the anonymous posters from being identified. The attorney for the media outlet also argued that the former commissioner was a “public official.” It was expected for “public officials” to face criticism. Thus the media outlet argued that it should not disclose the names of people who posted the anonymous comments.
Judge Howard Manning Jr. thought otherwise, and found the comments both defamatory and actionable. He ordered the media outlet to disclose the names and true identities of the bloggers within 15 days. In his order the judge wrote, “This case involves allegedly defamatory statements posted on the internet by anonymous bloggers. … The right to speak anonymously, on the Internet or anywhere, is not absolute and there is no right to freely defame other persons.”
Anonymous online comments are not so anonymous after all, even in North Carolina.
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