Free Speech & The Internet

I'm a long time member and supporter of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), but I have to say I  disagree with the organization's position in a lawsuit involving anonymous speech at a newspaper web site in Illinois.   The case and EFF's position are covered here.  Essentially, the son of a local candidate engaged in a heated "discussion" with an anonymous poster, and the candidate felt that the poster had gone too far in his/her comments.  The candidate has sought the identify of the anonymous poster through a court case, which is now at the Appellate level in Illinois.

While I think I understand EFF's First Amendment arguments, I think that there are other factors that should be heavily weighed.   The biggest issue to me, is that there are thousands of people who post mindless, unintelligible, drivel via electronic postings that never would have seen the light of day before the Internet.   In the past, when people wrote letters to the editor of a newspaper, they may or may not have gotten their views printed.  If they were printed, they had to attach their name to their thoughts and others could write challenges in response. There was some accountability involved in making public comments.

In today's electronic world, anyone can say anything about anything, on newspaper web sites, as well as other online media outlets, many of which allow anonymous comments.  The ability to make anonymous postings adds nothing whatsoever to the quality or benefit.   Perhaps a pure reading of the First Amendment doesn't distinguish between useful speech and heated nonsense, but in past years, the ability to spew nonsense was limited to standing on a street-corner.   Whether the speaker could attract listeners depended on their speech.   And it's not generally feasible to stand on a street corner and speak anonymously.  

I've commented previously on the proliferation of ignorant commentary on the Web and this case seems to cut to the core of the matter.   Do we as a society benefit from enabling anonymous comment in public forums on the Internet?   Should we hold people accountable for their opinions?  What does society gain from unaccountable and anonymous public comment?

I just can't buy EFF's argument that anonymous online comments deserve Constitutional protection.