Alex Lawrence and Geary Choe authored an article for the SociallyAware blog that discusses the use of Section 1782 to unmask an anonymous internet poster to pursue defamation claims abroad.
Despite judges noting the importance of anonymous speech, the authors explain that “courts have held that the First Amendment protects an anonymous speaker from being unmasked unless the applicant identifies the missing defendant with sufficient specificity such that the court can determine that it is a a real person subject to a lawsuit, identifies all previous steps taken to locate and identify the elusive defendant, demonstrates that the action against defendant can withstand a motion to dismiss, and proves that the discovery is likely to lead the identification of the defendant such that service of process would be possible.”
Read the full article.