Bloggers have been enjoying freedom of speech on the internet for years now. Many blogging sites have no particular rules against posting anonymously or even through multiple anonymous accounts as the same user. Many bloggers have gone forward with this practice believing that they would have the luxury of remaining anonymous no matter the subject.

This may no longer be the case due to recent court rulings in certain areas. Up until very recently, many requests to reveal the identity of anonymous bloggers were denied. In fact, the United States Supreme Court itself held up the rights of an individual to utilize anonymous free speech through such outlets. You may remember this particular case as being the McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission in 1995.

This ruling was handed down more than 15 years ago and, like many other areas of law, may be changing forever. As recently as August of 2009, there was a case of an individual who was referred to in a blog by denigrating names and profane language. The blog poster was, in this case, anonymous. The individual felt she had been wronged and decided to sue the blogger for defamation. Of course, one cannot sue a blogger whose identity is unknown, so the first step was to get the blogging site (in this case, it was Blogger.com, run by Google) to release the identity of the blogger.

The legal team handling the case filed a motion to force Google to identify this particular blogger. The New York Supreme Court ruled that though a blog is an anonymous forum, one cannot say that the internet is a place where particular text or comments on a subject "cannot be reasonably understood as factual assertions." Therefore, the woman who had been called derogatory and defamatory names in this anonymous blog was able to find out who the blogger was in order to sue the individual.

The court ordered Google to release the identity of the blogger.

This example is an important one to consider when moving forward with the idea that one can say anything on the internet and be free of worry of lawsuits or other type of legal action. The above case shows that bloggers and other online users must be aware of what and where they are posting in order to avoid potential legal trouble.

Free speech has always been a topic of interest and contention. This clearly remains so, especially as blogging websites, commenting facilities and other internet modules and systems allow the user to easily express his or her opinion with or without personally identifying himself or herself. While this allows for a wide range of opinions to be expressed that may or may not have been voiced in person or if the individual were identified, it can also result in legal action, depending upon each unique situation.

If you have questions about how it works in your area, it is best to contact an attorney who is familiar with the law.