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Nameless in Cyberspace

Anonymity on the Internet

by Jonathan D. Wallace

No. 54

December 8, 1999

Proposals to limit anonymous communica-

Federalists and Anti-Federalists using pseudo-

tions on the Internet would violate free speech

nyms. Today, human rights workers in China

rights long recognized by the Supreme Court.

and many other countries have reforged the link

between anonymity and free speech.

Anonymous and pseudonymous speech played

a vital role in the founding of this country.

Given the importance of anonymity as a

Thomas Paine's Common Sense was first released

component of free speech, the cost of banning

signed, "An Englishman." Alexander Hamilton,

anonymous Internet speech would be enor-

John Jay, James Madison, Samuel Adams, and

mous. It makes no sense to treat Internet speech

differently from printed leaflets or books.

others carried out the debate between

Jonathan D. Wallace publishes Ethical Spectacle, available at http://www.spectacle.org/, and is coauthor of Sex,

Laws and Cyberspace (New York: Henry Holt, 1996). He is a software executive and attorney in New York City.