What kinds of anonymous speech are protected on the Internet?
The First Amendment protects anonymous speech in all media, and as the ACLU maintains, anonymous speech on the Internet enjoys the same if not greater protection than in other contexts. While anonymous speech which is not defamatory is protected by the First Amendment, not all types of anonymous speech are necessarily protected. The same legal parameters which govern the level of constitutional protection to be afforded to “speech” in newspapers and on radio and television apply uniformly to speech which appears on the Internet. Thus, speech which is obscene, or which would and is intended to incite people to imminently commit a crime-whether it be anonymous or not-would fall outside of the First Amendment’s reach and would not ordinarily receive constitutional protection.
