Anonymity in the Balance

Abstract

The right to anonymity in the USA and elsewhere is in an odd state of paradox and flux. Despite a few small clouds on the jurisprudential horizon, in the US (although perhaps, all of a sudden, not in the EU) the formal legal protection of the right to anonymous speech is at an all-time high. Yet, while the law in the books creates a strong right to anonymous speech, it is reasonable to question how long the effective exercise of that right will remain a practical possibility. If doctrinally the right to anonymous speech is better enshrined in law today than ever before, at the same time there are efforts by both public and private parties to use pre-existing legal and especially technical means to undermine anonymity (and pseudonymity). These efforts are at an all-time high -- and are still growing.

Keywords: anonymity, cyberlaw, Internet law, free speech, anonymous speech, pseudonymity