“Last Thursday, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals weighed in on what procedural safeguards are necessary to protect the rights of internet users to engage in anonymous speech,” reports the Citizen Media Law Project.
“In Solers, Inc. v. Doe, the D.C. high court set out a stringent standard for its lower courts to follow and emphasized that a plaintiff ‘must do more than simply plead his case’ to unmask an anonymous speaker claimed to have violated the law.”
This case involves an anonymous speaker ‘who did not publish the allegedly defamatory statements on a website, blog, or other online platform open to the public’, CMLP outlines. Instead, the claim involves an anonymous tip submitted through a website reporting form.