Nearly every public company in the United States is the involuntary single subject of an Internet message board, where anybody with online access can spread information and commentary about the company to a worldwide audience — anonymously and for free. The message boards are usually operated by third-party Internet companies, such as Yahoo Inc., which impose minimal restraints on the contents of the postings and display readily accessible archives of postings for years.
The posters almost always assume pseudonyms; it may take a subpoena to learn a poster’s true identity. The subject public company is often precluded by federal securities laws from making responsive postings on the board. Many attempts by public companies to sue individual posters for defamation and related torts have been swiftly dismissed by the courts on free speech grounds.
