Jun 9, 2026 · 29 min · 11 segments
Send us Fan Mail What happens when governments start chasing anonymous online critics? Gavin Tighe and Stephen Thiele dive into the…
Stephen ThieleHost
I mean, uh, when that happens, uh, you end up looking like Russia where we know what happens to political dissidents.
They end up in prison and, uh, you know, have to live their life behind, uh, uh, bars or a cage, uh, simply for expressing a political opinion.
I would, I would actually argue that it may be the most important right, uh, that any citizen has, because freedom of speech, of course, allows for all of the other rights to be exercised.
You get the right to speak out on a political view in order to influence others to vote in a certain way.
I mean, freedom of speech is really, to my way of thinking, really the foundational right of all other rights, uh, upon which any, you know, real democracy is, uh, built on.
And, and I guess this is where, uh, the Department of Homeland Security, uh, is taking issue, uh, with potentially inflammatory political speech, uh, and is trying to, uh, root out, uh, uh, individuals who post things anonymously and by pseudonyms.
Everybody has their opinion, but they hide behind fake names to give their opinions.
Um, you know, I mean, the, the notion of anonymity, uh, and free speech have been, certainly in the, in the United States, have been married from the start.
I mean, I, I, I recall that many of the original pamphleteers, for example, in the original Amer- the time of the American Revolution were also [laughs] operating by pseudonym, 'cause if they weren't, they ended up going off to some lovely gulag, uh, surrounded by redcoats and bayonets.
So I mean, one of the, one of the, the realities of that is, you know, the people who criticize those who, who write under pseudonym, um, you know, the, the response from the s- well, their, their response from those writing under pseudonym would be, "I have to be under a pseudonym because I have to be afraid of people like you." Um, which is ultimately what, what's, what we're talking about here.
So what, what happened here was there, there was a summons, uh, issued by the Department of Homeland Security to Google to identify, uh, uh, the owner of an email address that, as I understand it, was affiliated with a Twitter handle, or X handle or whatever they call it.
I mean, uh, when that happens, uh, you end up looking like Russia where we know what happens to political dissidents.
They end up in prison and, uh, you know, have to live their life behind, uh, uh, bars or a cage, uh, simply for expressing a political opinion.
I would, I would actually argue that it may be the most important right, uh, that any citizen has, because freedom of speech, of course, allows for all of the other rights to be exercised.
You get the right to speak out on a political view in order to influence others to vote in a certain way.
I mean, freedom of speech is really, to my way of thinking, really the foundational right of all other rights, uh, upon which any, you know, real democracy is, uh, built on.
And, and I guess this is where, uh, the Department of Homeland Security, uh, is taking issue, uh, with potentially inflammatory political speech, uh, and is trying to, uh, root out, uh, uh, individuals who post things anonymously and by pseudonyms.
Everybody has their opinion, but they hide behind fake names to give their opinions.
Um, you know, I mean, the, the notion of anonymity, uh, and free speech have been, certainly in the, in the United States, have been married from the start.
I mean, I, I, I recall that many of the original pamphleteers, for example, in the original Amer- the time of the American Revolution were also [laughs] operating by pseudonym, 'cause if they weren't, they ended up going off to some lovely gulag, uh, surrounded by redcoats and bayonets.
So I mean, one of the, one of the, the realities of that is, you know, the people who criticize those who, who write under pseudonym, um, you know, the, the response from the s- well, their, their response from those writing under pseudonym would be, "I have to be under a pseudonym because I have to be afraid of people like you." Um, which is ultimately what, what's, what we're talking about here.
So what, what happened here was there, there was a summons, uh, issued by the Department of Homeland Security to Google to identify, uh, uh, the owner of an email address that, as I understand it, was affiliated with a Twitter handle, or X handle or whatever they call it.
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