In the years leading up to the American Revolution,
newspapers and pamphlets overflowed with essays signed “Publius,”
“Brutus,” and “A Farmer.” Those arguments helped shape a nation,
but the authors’ real names were nowhere to be found.
Americans have long relied on anonymous speech to
challenge the powerful, protect dissenters, and keep the focus on
ideas rather than identities. That tradition has endured into
America’s digital age, even as anonymous speech has become more
controversial.
To explore America’s history with anonymity, we are
joined by Jeff Kosseff, a nonresident senior legal fellow at The
Future of Free Speech and author of
The United States of Anonymous. Preorder his forthcoming
book,
The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of
Democracy’s Most Essential Freedom.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:01 What is anonymity?
04:38 Anonymous speech in Colonial America
15:58 Does the First Amendment protect anonymity?
20:35 Anonymous speech in the Civil Rights Era
31:17 The internet and anonymity
35:44 Modern anonymity debates: DHS subpoenas, age
verification, social media regulation, and VPN bans
51:53 Outro
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