A National Post article published this past weekend reveals that Brian Bowman of Winnipeg-based law firm Pitblado LLP is working on behalf of an unnamed client to take action against zeromeanszero.blogspot.com[Ed. note: No longer active]. The blog about Ottawa city politics — with a focus on the city’s embattled mayor, Larry O’Brien — has posted what Bowman described as “false and damaging” content about his client (who is reportedly not the mayor). The well-known blog is authored anonymously, under the pseudonym “Jane and John Smith.”
The Post reports that Bowman’s discussions with Google — parent company of Blogger.com, where the blog is hosted — may result in the blog being taken offline. It remains to be seen whether Google will be forced to reveal the blogger’s identity.
This is the latest in a string of recent news stories about Internet privacy. Earlier this month, Canadian model Liskula Cohen won a New York Supreme Court decision in her defamation case against a blogger who anonymously called her a “skank” on a Blogger.com blog. The identity of Rosemary Port, the blog’s creator, was surrendered by Google. “I was very, very confident that we would be able to demonstrate that this was defamation,” said Stephen Wagner, Cohen’s lawyer, in a video interview posted on The Globe and Mail website. “It was pretty far off the scale.”
The Cohen case has observers divided, with some people worried about the potential precedent set by Google’s decision to reveal the blogger’s identity. Meanwhile, Toronto lawyer Angela Swan wrote a column for Slaw.ca recently, decrying those who prefer to post content or comments on the Canadian legal blog anonymously. Several commenters on her post defended the importance of anonymity.
Meanwhile, it was announced last week that Facebook will comply with a request by Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart to update its privacy policy and change the way it collects, stores and shares personal information about its users. There was a lot of positive feedback about the Facebook changes in a recent Globe online discussion, but the fact remains that social networking sites require, as Globe columnist Matthew Ingram described it, a “more fluid notion” of one’s right to privacy.
In the ever-expanding online world, it’s easy to make yourself think that you’ll slip under the radar. For some people, this is an emboldening tool that prompts them to reveal information or opinions that they would otherwise keep to themselves. But caution, and an expectation that you’re traceable, is vitally important when posting content online — especially if you’re making comments about prominent individuals, or providing your personal information to Facebook, a company that relies on collecting and sharing demographic details about its user base to remain in business.