Jack, I strongly believe it is essential that Daily Kos take all efforts to protect the anonymity of all of its users, protecting them from adverse treatment, like in the workplace, or even physical harm.

It is for this reason that Daily Kos has a strict policy of never revealing the actual identity of any community member. It is also why we are standing our ground and fighting the lawsuit that Robert F. Kennedy Jr's has filed against us.

Please give $5 and support our legal efforts to protect the anonymity of our Daily Kos users and stand up to this dangerous conspiracy theorist.

Kennedy is suing us to reveal the identity of community member “DowneastDem,” for authoring this piece: “Anti-Vaxxer RFK JR. joins neo-Nazis in massive Berlin 'Anti-Corona' Protest.”. The story was a translation of a German-language news story about a Berlin anti-vaccination protest hosted and organized by right-wing neo-Nazi groups and sympathizers.

Kennedy sicced his lawyers on us, demanding identifying information on DowneastDem. Because of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, he cannot sue Daily Kos—the site itself—for defamation. We are protected by the so-called safe harbor. That’s why he’s demanding we reveal what we know about DowneastDem so he can sue that individual directly.

Now, keep in mind that DowneastDem essentially translated a local newspaper account, Der Tagesspiegel. And note, it wasn’t just that newspaper that reported the rally organized and attended by Nazis -- the New York Times, CBS and other media organizations reported the exact same story. Furthermore, there is literally no way Kennedy meets the Supreme Court’s First Amendment defamation standard for public officials (“reckless disregard for the truth”). This isn’t about winning a defamation case, it’s about punishing a pseudonymous author for daring to criticize him by doxxing him—by revealing his identity to the world, and likely, Kennedy’s rabid band of Q-loving anti-vaxxers.

Our response brief has many more examples of media coverage, as literally dozens of media organizations reported on the event the same way—anti-vaxxer Kennedy spoke at an event organized and attended by extremists. So why isn’t he suing those media outlets for saying the exact same thing DowneastDem wrote? What kind of cowardly bullshit is that?

Despite the utter lack of legal merit, the judge in this case essentially decided that the defamation arguments needed to be hashed out between the author—DowneastDem—and Kennedy, and ordered us to reveal whatever identifying information we have, ignoring both our community member’s free speech rights and our interest as an organization to safeguard those rights by preserving pseudonymity. We are in the process of appealing.

Obviously, this fight is expensive. Can you help us fight for the pseudonymity of this community by donating $5 to Daily Kos today?

I’ll keep everyone apprised of the legal case as it winds its way through the courts.

Thank you,
Markos Moulitsas, Founder
Daily Kos

P.S. Below is the first email we sent out about this legal battle

Jack, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pretty much the worst. The prominent anti-vaxxer (see here, here, and here, and also here and here as his family runs away from him), anti-masker, and anti-sound health policy scion of the famous family has done incredible damage to our ability to weather and emerge from this global pandemic, making common cause with Republicans like Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin to spread their anti-science, pro-COVID-19 message. Indeed, the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that just 12 people were responsible for 65% of all the COVID-19 misinformation on social media, including 73% of misinformation on Facebook. And No. 2 on their list? Kennedy and his Q-style-named organization, Children’s Health Defense.

But Kennedy isn’t content just spreading dangerous, life-threatening misinformation and lies. You know how crazy California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes sued a parody Twitter account to try and unmask the author, with Trump Justice Department help? Well, Kennedy has sued Daily Kos to unmask the identity of a community diarist for writing a story attacking him for attending an anti-mask rally in Berlin that was heavily planned, promoted, and attended by Nazis. (Fun fact, Kennedy was invited by organizers only after Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin turned down invitations.)

The full case history, and all filings, can be found here. Here is my affidavit expressing why it’s important for Daily Kos to protect the pseudonymity of its community, boiling down to this simple conclusion: “It is essential that Daily Kos take all efforts to ensure that a registered user may maintain anonymity. This is because some of the participants in our community would be subject to adverse treatment, for example in the workplace, and in some instances even physical harm to themselves and their family if their Daily Kos identity was revealed.” We take that seriously, which is why we’ve been fighting this case and will continue to do so. Unfortunately, we lost the first legal round, thanks to a judge who is apparently unconcerned with First Amendment ramifications given the chilling effect of her ruling.

Daily Kos won’t back down and is appealing the ruling. It won’t back down from the truth—which is that Kennedy cavorts with neo-Nazis making common cause with his dangerous anti-vaccination efforts. We won’t back down from the law—both the First Amendment that protects our right to criticize the wealthy and powerful like Kennedy, and SLAPP laws that punish them for frivolous lawsuits intended to silence critics.

And we will never back down from defending our community from those who would use their unlimited wealth to silence their critics, no matter how much your voice and activism triggers them.

Please support our legal efforts against this dangerous, murderous, conspiracy theorist. Click here to donate.

Thank you,
Markos Moulitsas, Founder
Daily Kos

P.S. You can read much more about this case and the groups with which Kennedy has allied himself to promote anti-vaccine conspiracy theories here.

If you wish to donate by mail instead, please send a check to Daily Kos, PO Box 70036, Oakland, CA, 94612. Contributions to Daily Kos are not tax deductible. (Please note that we may be slow to process checks during the coronavirus outbreak.)