ReadWriteWeb’s Sarah Perez has a good summary of the case of two former female Yale University law students who have settled their suit brought against some 30-plus anonymous commenters who posted derogatory remarks about them on an internet forum called AutoAdmit. Although the details of the settlement are private, it appears they received some sort of compensation from 8 or 9 of the commenters.

Before you start worrying that anonymity will go away on the web (not that this is even possible), the basis of the suit by these women was that the reportedly unsubstantiated and highly inflammatory personal attacks (including sexually explicit ones) were:

1. made on a website frequented by potential employers (law firms)
2. tied to the women’s real names (so anyone doing a Google search on their names could easily find these comments).

I’m all for free speech, and I believe the anonymity provided by the internet is really good in a lot of ways (allowing closeted or questioning gay or bisexual people to be out online, for example). But as someone who has run a very large community, I’ve seen how detrimental anonymous commenting can be, both to the community and to the individuals being attacked. Although most commenters are fairly respectful (or at least not outright malicious), I’ve been appalled over the years to see what some people will say when they can hide behind anonymity — things I doubt they would ever say if they had to attach their real names to it — if they had to be personally accountable for their own speech.

I also believe community owners or moderators have a responsibility to prevent abuse of anonymity. Unfortunately, a law called “Section 230″ currently immunizes internet publishers from legal harm, so the women could not sue AutoAdmit for refusing to remove the comments, they could only go after the anonymous commenters themselves. Perez points out the problems with this law:

At the time of its establishment in the 90’s, however, those “publishers” were the ISPs themselves - the AOLs and CompuServes that delivered Internet access to consumers. The idea of bloggers, social media publishers, and anonymous blog and forum commenters didn’t really exist yet and therefore wasn’t taken into consideration.

It’s the policy of AfterEllen.com’s community to remove personal attacks, or racist, sexist or homophobic comments, and while I’m the first to admit the line can be fuzzy sometimes, I believe I should absolutely be held responsible if I allow comments that clearly cross the line to stand (as long as I’ve first been made aware of them).

I’m not suggesting people shouldn’t be able to have freedom of speech on the internet, or that there shouldn’t be anonymity, but I do believe there should be legal recourse available for those who are subject to personal attacks online made by people hiding behind anonymity, just as there is in the offline world. As more and more employers and schools use the internet to research potential employees or students, malicious and unsubstantiated attacks have real-world effects beyond just hurting someone’s feelings.

Jessica Valenti of Feministing.com makes a similar point in a great piece she wrote in 2007 for The Guardian entitled “How the web became a sexists’ paradise” about the particularly detrimental effect anonymity is having on women online:

While online harassment doesn’t necessarily create the same immediate safety concerns as street harassment, the consequences are arguably more severe. If someone calls you a “slut” on the street, it stings - but you can move on. If someone calls you a “slut” online, there’s a public record as long as the site exists … And for young women applying for jobs, the reality is terrifying. Imagine a potential employer searching for information and coming across a thread about what a “whore” you are.

Sometimes the attacks are even more personal, as Valenti recounts the story of a woman who received harassing comments on her site that escalated to death threats and the publication of her social security number and home address — all from anonymous commenters, of course.

If the threat of being sued for libel makes someone think twice before posting those kinds of comments, then I say bring it on.