Why Some People Are Dead Wrong About Privacy
There Is No Right To Anonymous Speech
Yelp published negative comments about a business. The business owner claimed that the statements were fraudulent and made as part of a campaign whose sole purpose was to damage his company.
He asked Yelp for the identities of the persons who posted the claimed fraudulent comments so that he could prove that they had been paid to do so as part of a scheme to ruin his business.
Yelp refused, claiming that people have a right to anonymous speech no matter how false that speech is claimed to be. The court disagreed and ordered Yelp to disclose the names.
When people talk about the right to privacy they usually mean one of two things:
(1) the right to keep personal information about themselves private;
(2) the right to anonymously publish information about others
The first is passive. The second is active.
The difference between the two is night and day.
It’s the difference between the ability to own a gun and the ability to shoot someone with your gun.
My medical records belong to me and I should be able to keep them private.
If John Smith gets his hands on a hacked copy of my medical records I should be able to go to court to stop him (or punish him) for publishing them.
I can’t do that if Mr. Smith is able to anonymously publish the secret details of my life. Mr. Smith’s so-called right of anonymity can’t be allowed to trump my right of privacy. It’s similar to the old saying that Mr. Smith’s right to swing his fist ends at the tip of my nose.
If Mr. Smith wants to publish something about me he must attach his name to it so that I can protect myself in case what he publishes about me is private, threatening, false, stolen or criminal.
With every right comes an equivalent responsibility. Along with the right to speak is the responsibility to speak truthfully.
Anonymous speech is toxic to more than just my right to privacy.
We all have the right not to have faceless accusers tell lies about us.
We all have the right not to have faceless bullies stalk, harass and threaten us.
The First Amendment has never protected lies or the disclosure of private information, stolen information, or the solicitation of crimes (“I’ll pay $5,000 to whomever kills Bill Jones” — “I’m looking for a twelve-year-old girl to have sex with” — “Pay me $10,000 or I’ll burn down your house”).
The right to free speech does not and never has included a right to false speech or criminal speech.
Since there is no First Amendment right to make false, stolen, or criminal speech there certainly is no right to make anonymous false, stolen or criminal speech.
You have the privacy right to keep your personal thoughts to yourself.
When you choose to communicate your private thoughts to others you have elected to give up your anonymity.
There is no such thing as a right to make anonymous speech because we all have the right not to be subjected to anonymous lies, threats and invasions of our privacy.
