Then, on March 12, police raid his home, handcuff his girlfriend, who was the only one home at the time, and confiscate his computers and hard drives. They even break into a safe and take his back up hard drive. The warrant for the search and seizure cited “computer tampering with the intent to harass.” Is that even a real law?
Depending on whom you ask, anonymous blogging is either a God-given right that the founding fathers wisely protected in the Constitution, or it is a modern evil akin to meth addiction, gang violence, and Dancing with the Stars.
The subject is pretty important to me since my day job entails helping clients set up and maintain their blogs and my after hours obsession is the First Amendment. Social media, and blogs in particular, are still new enough that not everyone knows how to react to them properly.
Over the past month or two, I’ve collected several examples of poor reactions to anonymous bloggers from governments, police departments, and even a church. These stories might enrage you for several reasons, but it’s instructive to see how ephemeral Internet privacy and anonymity is.
Hundreds of Bloggers Arrested in Asia
The BBC reported last June that since 2003, 64 bloggers have been arrested in China and as many as 344 in Burma. Prison sentences in China ranged from 15 months to eight years. I don’t even know what’s happening to the Burmese bloggers. The point is: If you’re going to blog anonymously about controversial issues, do it in the United States. Even then, you could still run into problems.
Phoenix Police Raid Blogger’s Home
I first read about this story on the great blog Photography is Not a Crime by Carlos Miller. I’m still amazed this happened in the United States.
Basically, this blogger was mad at the Phoenix police because of the way they handled harassment charges from his ex-wife (He was eventually acquitted). So, he starts a blog, Bad Phoenix Cops, and rips them apart online. Soon, he has 50 to 100 retired police officers feeding him information on corruption and mismanagement. He writes about it
The blogger, Jeff Pataky, bought himself a new laptop and continues to blog. But it’s not just police departments that can cause grief for a blogger, politicians do a good job as well.
Mudflats blogger outed by Alaskan State Representative
Mudflats became one of the most popular political blogs during the 2008 election because of her scathing criticisms of fellow Alaskan and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. But her problems arose when she criticized a Democratic state representative Mike Doogan, who then went on a crusade to out her. He eventually did, and you can read her name here if you want, although it was sort of anticlimactic for me.
Mudflats chose to remain anonymous and has never divulged why, although she lists several good possible reasons on her blog. She is also amazed that an elected representative would be so obsessed that he would track her down and then publish her name to his constituents.
She goes on to point out that even Ben Franklin published items anonymously under the name Mrs. Silence Dogood. I would have to point out, however, that he too was outed against his will by his brother. But it’s not just police and politicians who aren’t happy with anonymous bloggers, even a church is getting in on the action.
Cops may have outed blogger to the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville
In 2007, Thomas Rich, anonymous no more, thought his megachurch was raising more money than it needed. He still wanted to attend the church, but he felt he needed to raise some important issues about the finances. So, he started blogging anonymously. The church was not happy. According to the Florida Times-Union’s website, the Rev. John Blout called a police officer, who also attended the church, and asked him to investigate. The police officer opened an investigation and subpoenaed Google and Comcast for all the information on Rich. He eventually dropped the investigation, but somehow, Rich’s name ended up getting back to Rev. Blout.
Long story short, Rich gets kicked out of the church, and is now suing the sheriff’s office and the state attorney’s office.
Take Home Message
Groups like the Electron Frontier Foundation are working to secure rights for anonymous bloggers, but there is never a guarantee. The bottom line is that when you are using blogs or social media, you are never anonymous. Everything you post can and will be held against you at some point in time. I hope this doesn’t have a chilling effect on free expression, but I also don’t want people to operate their blogs with a false sense of security. In the end, there is no such thing as an anonymous blogger.