Twitter Users Have Right to Post Distasteful Comments Without Revealing Identity

March 4, 2015, 9:57 PM UTC

Twitter Inc. was not required to unmask the identities of two anonymous users who posted allegedly defamatory comments about a music holding company, due to the joking nature of the tweets and the fact that they were one-time comments, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California held March 2 (Music Grp. Macao Commercial Offshore Ltd. v. Does, N.D. Cal., 3:14-mc-80328-LB, 3/2/15).

Judge Laurel Beeler said that the disclosure of the speakers’ identities for the merely distasteful comments would impede their First Amendment rights to anonymous free speech.

A plaintiff seeking to disclose the identity ...

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