NY Bill Would Unmask Anonymous Bloggers

Getty Images via @daylifeBills introduced in the New York Senate and Assembly would pressure Web site administrators to delete anonymous posts and shine a light on unnamed bloggers whose comments elicited complaints, TheVerge.com Web site reports.

Republican solons Thomas O'Mara and Dean Murray are sponsoring, respectively, S.6779 and A.8688, which would regulate the Internet insofar as New York Web sites are concerned. The measures would require Web site administrators to provide an Email address or toll-free phone number that could receive public complaints about online anonymous comments.

If a complaint were filed, the anonymous poster would have 48 hours after being notified within which to identify himself as the author of the comment by IP address, name and home address. Failure to do so would require the Web site administrator to delete the comment.

Passage of the bills is unlikely, and in any case, would almost certainly be struck down by the courts as being violative of the First Amendment.