Some Limits on Blog Freedom

Although bloggers are free to spread the word (at least those who live in the United States), you should be aware of a few boundaries just in case your efforts to hide your identity go awry.

U.S. lawmakers have installed some restrictions on our freedom to protect others from harm. We are not completely free to behave in a manner that injures another person. The following section briefly outlines the legal limits that affect bloggers.

Privacy Rights

Gossip and speculation can be considered harmful behavior if it hurts another person's livelihood or reputation.

Some states have privacy laws that prohibit the publication of private facts about someone else. Bloggers must consider the privacy rights of the people they blog about. It's always a good idea to avoid naming people on your blog, especially when you are relating an amusing anecdote about their behavior that they'd prefer remain untold.

If you really can't help yourself, it may be wise to assign fake names and details to prevent your victim, er, friend, from identifying him- or herself, especially if he knows that you keep a blog.

Under U.S. law, an injured party can sue anyone for revealing private facts that are offensive to a reasonable person in public and these facts are not a legitimate matter of public concern.

A private fact includes details about someone that have not been exposed to the public, such as a person's sexual orientation, sexual history, or medical condition. The elements that must be proved to win this type of invasion of privacy lawsuit vary from state to state. Generally, a plaintiff has to prove that the disclosed fact was not a matter of legitimate public concern and had never been publicly disclosed. Publication on a blog would be considered public disclosure, but if the private details were deemed "newsworthy" it might be legal to print despite the fact that such a revelation might be offensive to a reasonable person.

Another way to breach a person's privacy is intrusion into seclusion. If you were to obtain and publish photographs of a person in his own home, like the paparazzi does with celebrities, that act would be considered an intrusion. However, if you took a picture of someone in a public place, including a bar or restaurant, you might have some protections because a reasonable person would hardly expect to be secluded in public spaces. The law also protects the disclosing party if the injured party gave her consent to take his picture or write about him in her blog.

Free Speech Limits

Journalists run into privacy concerns all the time. For this reason, the right of free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment has been used to balance privacy concerns. Private facts can be disclosed if they are newsworthy. Over the years our court system has decreed that private facts can be disclosed if there is a legitimate public interest in it. Different states have different rules, but most courts allow the disclosure of private facts if they are about a person involved in a news event or a person who has attained the status of a public figure such as a politician, criminal, or actor.

Like journalism, blogging is considered a form of expression. However, courts have carved out some additional exceptions to free speech to protect the larger community. U.S. law says that you can be penalized for saying something that threatens national security and public order, health, and morals as well as statements that hurt another person's reputation.

Even with restrictions like privacy limits and exceptions to free speech, bloggers have a pretty large area to express themselves. Indeed, limits strengthen the legitimacy of blogging because they allow the maximum number of people to participate in spirited debate or express their opinions with minimal harm to others.