May 28, 2012 | Online

New York may ban anonymous online posts

New York politicians are considering a bill that would put an end to anonymous posting online. Identical proposals are currently making their way through both the state Senate and Assembly.

The bills would require web administrators to “upon request remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless such 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.”

"With more and more people relying on social media and the Internet to communicate and gather information, it is imperative that the legislature put into place some type of safeguard to prevent people from using the Internet's cloak of anonymity to bully our children and make false accusations against local businesses and elected officials," explained assemblyman Jim Conte, one of the bill's sponsors.

Sen. Thomas O’Mara added that such a law would “help lend some accountability to the internet age.”

Should the bill become law it would only affect New York-based websites, though other jurisdictions would likely follow suit. However, one major obstacle stands in its way: any such law would be immediately challenged in court as a violation of the First Amendment.

As Matt Peckham for TIME pointed out: "While the First Amendment doesn’t specify anonymous speech, the Electronic Frontier Foundations notes that the U.S. Supreme Court 'has ruled repeatedly that the right to anonymous free speech is protected by the First Amendment.'"

And no politician, Democrat or Republican, is going to seriously take on the First Amendment.

The New York Bill that Would Ban Anonymous Online Speech [TIME]