To Speak or Not to Speak: Developing Legal Standards for Anonymous Speech on the Internet

Employee Anonymous Online Dissent: Dynamics and Ethical Challenges for Employees, Targeted Organisations, Online Outlets, and Audiences

“…Scott, Rains, and Haseki trace the very long tradition of anonymous communication "from anonymous Puritan attacks against the Anglican Church in the 1500s to a wide range of unsigned paintings and writings through much of the recorded history, and from the pseudonymously published Federalist Papers over two centuries ago to the millions of unidentified online messages today" (2011: 299). Clearly, anonymity has grown as a central variable of interest due to contemporary communication technologies, and become a problematic issue as witnessed by the numerous cases of employee dismissals and corporate scandals linked to online disclosure and information leaks (Anonymous, 1998;Lipinski, 2002;Scott et al, 2011;Shoss, Maurer, & Rupprecht, 2013).…”

“…A first tension in which the administrators of online outlets may find themselves involved is between preserving online anonymity for safe disclosure and privacy rights, and integrating identity checks to ensure accountable and transparent disclosure. As already pointed out, the lack of accountability linked to the anonymous status of the dissenters can lead to misrepresentation and even promotion of false assertions (Lipinski, 2002;Scott, 2004) on the part of employees in the first place, but also from online audiences, competitors, and even organisations themselves when engaging in dialogue on these platforms in order to advocate their respective positions.…”

New Trends in Content Creation: Changing Responsibilities for Librarians

“…As we have pointed out, they no longer operate in what was for them a well known and controlled environment where their different responsibilities were related to their assigned duties. They are assigned an additional role -a role as information flow facilitators, or in legal terms -the role of a common carrier (Lipinski 2002). In the legal jargon of the United States, Internet Service Providers are referred to as common carriers.…”

Anonymous Communication in Organizations

“…By providing mechanisms for anonymous communication, organizations may be able to enhance workplace communication. Lipinski (2002) suggested that workplace policies that reflect legal precedents "can help preserve a spirit of free speech, yet allow for the continued functioning of the organization" (p. 108). Our findings suggest that a necessary part of any such effort will involve educating members about when anonymous communication can and should be used-as well as convincing those who generally view anonymity as never appropriate that it may be acceptable in certain situations.…”

“…Williams's (1988) claim that "anonymity is a notion that ought to be thought, taught and written about much more than it is at present" (p. 765) still resonates today, especially when it comes to the development of theory in this area. However, recent analyses of anonymity have emerged from a variety of perspectives, including sociology (Marx, 1999), legal studies (see Ekstrand, 2003;Froomkin, 1999;Levine, 1996;Levmore, 1996;Lipinski, 2002;Mostyn, 2000;Wieland, 2001), information technology (Pinsonneault & Heppel, 1998) and even social psychology (see work on social identity and deindividuation by Lea, Spears, & deGroot, 2001;Postmes, Spears, & Lea, 1998). Although such work from these various disciplines is important for understanding anonymity, none of them takes an especially communicative approach to this fundamentally communicative construct.…”