California SLAPP Law

A council has dropped a five-year, £200,000 legal campaign trying to unmask an anonymous blogger called Mr Monkey, who made allegations of impropriety against four senior members of the authority. A Freedom of Information request has forced South Tyneside council to admit how much they spent trying (and failing) to discover the identity of Mr Monkey, who made allegations of impropriety against four senior members of the authority. They’ve dropped the curious case after the Guardian started asking questions

Source: www.theguardian.com

The Council suspected the blog was authored by Ahmed Khan, but Khan has always vehemently denied being Mr Monkey and unsuccessfully filed an ‘anti-SLAPP’ (Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation) motion in 2011, which would have prevented the council from obtaining more of his details. But this claim was dismissed by a judge as “frivolous”, as the nature of the John Doe suit meant he was never named as a defendant.

There are procedures by which an anonymous blogger can oppose a subpoena that would expose his identity, but you can’t simply bring an anti-SLAPP motion claiming you’re not the defendants.