Anonymous Internet speech, like traditional Internet speech, is protected. The anonymity and potentially unlimited mass audience of Internet speech, however, poses difficulties for application of traditional doctrines governing speech. In particular, traditional speech protection doctrines take into account the potential value to the public at large, wherein the regulation of speech must be balanced with the potential for harm. For Internet speech, the balancing must take into account the possible value of widespread, instantaneous public information.
With regard to anonymous Internet speech, unlike traditional speech, the audience does not know who the speaker is or where the speaker is, and cannot observe the speaker’s demeanor, since the nature of the gathering is a publicly accessible Internet forum (an Internet site). Additionally, the audience is as hidden and anonymous as the speaker, thus the reaction of the content reviewer can only be gauged by the reaction reflected in Internet postings, either on the posting site or on a social networking site that links to the posting site.??
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