Protecting Online Anonymity and Preserving Reputation Through Due Process
| Publication year | 2010 |
Georgia State University Law Review
Article 12
3-13-2012
Protecting Online Anonymity and Preserving Reputation Through Due Process
Michael Baumrind
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Recommended Citation
Baumrind, Michael (2010) "Protecting Online Anonymity and Preserving Reputation Through Due Process," Georgia State University Law Review: Vol. 27: Iss. 4, Article 12.
Available at: http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol27/iss4/12
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PROTECTING ONLINE ANONYMITY AND PRESERVING REPUTATION THROUGH DUE PROCESS
Michael R. Baumrind*
Introduction
In August of 2008, a blogger1 angered cover model Liskula Cohen by calling her, among other names, a "skank," an "old hag," and a "ho"4 through the website Blogger.com.5 Asserting that these comments were "malicious and untrue,"6 Cohen, in turn, wanted to use New York's defamation laws to seek redress from the blogger. At first glance, Cohen had everything she needed to at least file such a claim. The statements were clearly published and likely without permission.9 They were arguably false—Cohen would likely dispute that she is "sexually promiscuous"10 or a "prostitute."11 The one thing
* J.D. Candidate, 2011, Georgia State University College of Law. Special thanks to Professor Jonathan Todres for his mentorship and advice and to my husband Henry for his love and support.
1. A blog, short for weblog, is a "website that displays in chronological order the postings by one or more individuals and usu[ally] has links to comments on specific postings." The American Heritage College Dictionary 1554 (4th ed. 2007). A blogger is one who "write[s] entries in, add[s] material to, or maintain[s] a weblog." Id. at 155.
2. Maureen Dowd, Stung by the Perfect Sting, N.Y. Times, Aug. 26, 2009, at A23, available at 2009 WLNR 16617973.
3. Id.
4. Id.; Cohen v. Google, Inc., 887 N.Y.S.2d 424, 425-26 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2009).
5. Cohen, 887 N.Y.S.2d at 425-26.
6. Id.
7. Id.
8. "The elements of a cause of action for defamation 'are a false statement, published without privilege or authorization to a third-party, constituting fault as judged by, at a minimum, a negligence standard, and, it must either cause special harm or constitute defamation per se.'" Id. at 427-28 (quoting Dillon v. City of New York, 261 A.D.2d 34, 38 (N.Y. App. Div. 1999)).
9. See Cohen, 887 N.Y.S.2d at 425-26. Cohen's complaint alleged that the statements were published on the online website Blogger.com. Id.
10. Cohen, 887 N.Y.S.2d at 428. The Cohen court defines "skank" as "'one who is disgustingly foul or filthy and often considered sexually promiscuous.'" Id. (quoting The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 1297 (4th ed. 2009), available at http://www.dictionary.reference.com/browse/skank).
11. Id. The anonymous blogger allegedly called Cohen a "ho," which the court defines as "'slang' for a 'prostitute.'" Id. (quoting The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 658 (4th ed. 2009), available at http://www.dictionaryreference.com/browse/ho).
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she did not have, however, was the anonymous blogger's identity. Rather than ending her suit before it even began, Cohen did what a
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growing number of defamation plaintiffs do: she sought a court order compelling the Internet Service Provider (ISP)14 to release the anonymous blogger's identity.15
Eventually, the First Amendment could pose a problem for Cohen. She is a public figure, and the Supreme Court has held the First Amendment vigorously protects one's right to speak out against those in the public eye.16 Unlike her private-plaintiff counterparts, during discovery Cohen will have to produce evidence to support that the alleged defamatory statements were false and that the defendant
published them with "actual malice." At this pre-action, pre-discovery stage of litigation, however, Cohen is not trying to prevail on her cause of action; she is trying to bring it in the first place. To do so, she needs to know whom to sue, and in some courts, this implicates another First Amendment concern: the right to anonymity.18
The Supreme Court has protected the right to anonymity in four seminal cases.19 In each of these four cases, the Court invalidated
12. Id. at 425.
13. See, e.g., Doe v. Cahill, 884 A.2d 451, 455 (Del. 2005); Indep. Newspapers, Inc. v. Brodie, 966 A.2d 432, 434-38 (Ct. App. Md. 2009); Dendrite Int'l, Inc. v. Doe, 775 A.2d 756, 760 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2001); Greenbaum v. Google, Inc., 845 N.Y.S. 2d 695, 697 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2007); Lassa v. Rongstad, 718 N.W.2d 673, 679 (Wis. 2006).
14. An Internet Service Provider is an "organization that provides access to the Internet." PC Mag.com Encyclopedia, Definition of ISP, http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=ISP&i=45481,00.asp (last visited Mar. 2, 2011). In Cohen, Google, the parent company of Blogger.com was the ISP holding the identity of the anonymous blogger. Cohen, 887 N.Y.S.2d at 425. For a helpful discussion of the relationships among blogs, ISPs, email addresses, and identity, see Indep. Newspapers, Inc., 966 A.2d at 435-38.
15. Cohen, 887 N.Y.S.2d at 425.
16. N.Y. Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 279-80 (1964) ("The constitutional guarantees require, we think, a federal rule that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with 'actual malice'—that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.").
17. Id. at 280.
18. See generally Lyrissa B. Lidsky, Silencing John Doe: Defamation & Disclosure in Cyberspace, 49 Duke L.J. 855, 888-904 (2000). The U.S. Supreme Court has protected a right to anonymous speech in some circumstances. Infra Part II.
19. Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc'y, Inc. v. Village of Stratton, 536 U.S. 150 (2002); Buckley v. Am. Constitutional Law Found., Inc., 525 U.S. 182 (1999); McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm'n, 514 U.S. 334 (1995); Talley v. California, 362 U.S. 60 (1960).
2011] PROTECTING ONLINE ANONYMITY 759
laws requiring a speaker to identify himself prior to speaking. Now, when anonymous online speech threatens an individual's reputation, trial courts have begun asking whether compelling disclosure of an
online speaker's identity would violate this right.
In Doe v. Cahill, the Delaware Supreme Court articulated several concerns in this context:
The possibility of losing anonymity in a future lawsuit could intimidate anonymous posters into self-censoring their comments or simply not commenting at all. A defamation plaintiff, particularly a public figure, obtains a very important form of relief by unmasking the identity of his anonymous critics. The revelation of identity of an anonymous speaker "may subject [the speaker] to ostracism for expressing unpopular ideas, invite retaliation from those who oppose her ideas or from those whom she criticizes, or simply give unwanted exposure to her mental processes."23
Based on these concerns, Cahill required that a plaintiff seeking to compel disclosure satisfy a heightened "summary judgment" standard
before clearing this First Amendment hurdle. This means that the plaintiff must not only state facts but also "introduce evidence creating a genuine issue of material fact for all elements of a
defamation claim."
In contrast to Cahill, the New York case of Cohen v. Google, Inc. relegated these First Amendment concerns to a footnote and
20. Watchtower, 536 U.S. at 168-69; Buckley, 525 U.S. at 204; McIntyre, 514 U.S. at 357; Talley, 362 U.S. at 65-66; see also infra Part II.
21. See infra Part I.
22. Doe v. Cahill, 884 A.2d 451, 457 (Del. 2005).
23. Id. at 457 (alteration in original) (quoting Lidsky, supra note 18, at 890).
24. Id.; see also Mobilisa, Inc. v. Doe, 170 P.3d 712, 720 (Ariz. Ct. App. 2007); Cahill, 884 A.2d at 460; Solers, Inc. v. Doe, 977 A.2d 941, 954 (D.C. Ct. App. 2009); Reunion Indus., Inc. v. Doe, 80 Pa. D. & C.4th 449, 452 (C.P. Penn. 2007).
25. Cahill, 884 A.2d at 463. In Cahill, the Court acknowledged that certain elements of a defamation claim, such as "actual malice," are nearly impossible to support with evidence at this early stage of litigation, and therefore the defamation plaintiff need only introduce evidence on material facts within her control. Id at 463-64; accord Solers, 977 A.2d at 954.
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summarily dismissed them.26 New York trial courts have consistently
held that the generally applicable rules for pre-action discovery, combined with the elements of a defamation suit, "appear to address
the constitutional concerns." Therefore, in New York, a plaintiff may be able to compel disclosure by merely showing a prima facie basis for a "meritorious cause of action and that the information
sought is material and necessary to the actionable wrong." For Cohen, this meant she needed only to state facts that "fairly indicate[d] [s]he ha[d] some cause of action against the adverse
party." She did not need to produce actual evidence of defamation.
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Currently, there is little consensus on how to approach this issue.32 This Note begins in Part I by describing the varying approaches courts take when addressing whether to grant a subpoena for an anonymous blogger's identity in a defamation suit. Part I reveals that similar cases are handled inconsistently.
Part II demonstrates that until recently, the Supreme Court had not made clear whether a constitutional right to anonymous speech truly exists. Part...
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