An Illinois state legislator has proposed a bill that, if passed, would make it harder for people to leave comments anonymously on websites.
Illinois state Sen. Ira Silverstein recently introduced the Internet Posting Removal Act (IPRA), which would allow website administrators to track – and delete, if necessary – comments made by anonymous posters on their websites, “unless the anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate.”
The IPRA would impact those who comment anonymously on blogs, forums, message boards and social networks, as well as other websites with comment sections.
This act could bring into question the 1995 Supreme Court ruling in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, which protects online anonymity.
“Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical minority views…Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority…It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation…at the hand of an intolerant society,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in the majority opinion.
Before the age of the Internet, the 1960 Supreme Court ruling in Talley v. California protected the right to handing out anonymous handbills.
“There can be no doubt that such an identification requirement would tend to restrict freedom to distribute information and thereby freedom of expression,” Justice Hugo L. Black wrote for the majority.
Silverstein, a Democrat, is the latest in a line of state legislators who are working to abolish anonymity online. Republicasn in the New York State Assembly unsuccessfully proposed similar legislation last May, while the Shelby, Tenn. County Commission unsuccessfully sought a court order to reveal the names of nearly 9,000 anonymous people who posted on a Memphis news site between 2010 and 2012.
