Anonymous commenters on the website PubPeer are protected under the First Amendment, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled last week (December 7). Plaintiff Fazlul Sarkar—a former Wanye State University pathologist who pursued legal action attempting to learn the identities of PubPeer users who had alleged inconsistencies in Sarkar’s work—is still able to pursue a defamation suit against the anonymous commenters, the court noted.
“This ruling is a critical victory for freedom of speech and scientific inquiry,” Alex Abdo, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which defended PubPeer—as well as anonymous commenters Jane and John Doe—wrote in a statement emailed to The Scientist. “Scientists who anonymously review the work of their peers should not have to fear retribution for exposing the anomalies they find, and the court rightly agreed. Without the breathing space that anonymity provides, free speech and scientific inquiry would suffer.”
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