Why anonymity has to be protected to enable true free speech

Most digital rights advocates have no doubt about the importance of free speech online, or about the role that privacy and anonymity play in ensuring it. On the other hand, policy-makers, legislators, and companies behind digital platforms where this speech is taking place hardly agree – at best they are oblivious to the significance of this point, at worst, they are actively eroding online anonymity.

Anonymous free speech is a concept older than the internet, but also than the United States, as it previously applied to the printed word.