Commission Goes Fishin' for IDs of Memphis Daily Online Posters

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)The Shelby County (Tenn.) Commission yesterday voted 8-5 to endorse subpoenaing the E.W. Scripps. Co.-owned Memphis Commercial Appeal (MCA) to determine the identities of anonymous posters on the daily's Web site,  the MCA reported.

The lion's share of 1,200 online comments following the MCA story about the subpoena vote were critical of the Commission, according to the daily. Commission attorneys in June filed a motion in federal court to derail referendums by six county municipalities seeking separate school districts.

The Commission contends referendum supporters want to create discriminatory white-majority suburban school districts from the newly formed unified school system, and argue that knowing the identities of anonymous bloggers who made racially charged comments in the online edition of the MCA will enable the body to discover whether the same critics backed legislators who sponsored bills advancing the referendums.

Strangely enough, Shelby County Commissioners didn't consult this blog before Monday's vote, but the ever-eager to help "TUOL" staff nevertheless is happy to opine: What were you guys thinking? 

Sticking a governmental nose into the operations of  a daily newspaper and betraying the privacy interests of thousands of readers who choose to share their opinions anonymously on the flimsy premise that the identities of a handful of the fake-monikered commenters might pertain to the Commission's referendum litigation goes beyond a mere "fishing expedition" all the way to a full fleet of Japanese trawlers on a frenzied tuna run.

Worse than going overboard, the Commission has gone over-broad in its request, to the detriment of MCA readers and the First Amendment.

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.