The United States of Anonymous: How the First Amendment Shaped Online Speech

Increased private and public sector surveillance along with facial recognition, geolocation, and other technology advances allow unprecedented access to people’s identity, notes Kosseff (cyber science, U.S. Naval Academy; The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet). Such developments threaten to undermine an essential component of U.S. democracy he dubs “the culture of anonymity.” He explains that that culture is grounded that culture in a tradition dating to colonial pamphleteers and the Federalist Papers and fixed in First Amendment protections allowing people to communicate controversial, embarrassing, harmful, intimate, or even revolutionary ideas without facing repercussions. To preserve, indeed, to continue to empower anonymity in its many guises and allow people to control what, if any details about themselves are revealed, particularly in internet activity, requires increased legal protections, Kosseff insists. Lauding the benefits of anonymous speech in everyday life, he advocates robust online protections and urges lawmakers to supplement First Amendment rights with stricter privacy laws to restrict the ability of public and private parties to collect, use, and share people’s identifying information.