By Mike King
The issue of leaving anonymous comments on the net has long been contentious, but there are a growing number of cases where people are claiming legal redress against the leavers of defamatory anonymous comments.
In one such case in California, it looks as though the law may be coming down against the case for anonymity. A couple is taking legal action against a web forum to make it reveal the identity of people who posted anonymous comments about them. The couple, who were cleared of a sexual assault charge, claim that the comments made about them are defamatory.
And there are plenty of other similar examples, such as the Maxon/mywebtimes.com and cvillenews.com cases.
It’s about time too. The culture of anonymous commenting has long been an unpleasant part of the net but still it continues. Back in 2006 Shel Isreal posted his living room comment policy refusing to accept anonymous comments on his blog.
It seems pretty clear to me that people should be held accountable for their comments in a public forum, whether online or otherwise. Apart from the obvious cowardice of hiding behind anonymously posting comments, anonymity hides vested interests, makes it far too easy for people to lie and often provides a forum for abuse. The whole practice strikes me as rather pathetic.
To have any credibility, comments need to be attributed and the author should be prepared to stand by them. Perhaps the legal challenges being made will change net culture for the better.
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