BYU Law Review Volume 2016 | Issue 2 Article 11 March 2016 Upping the Ante: Rethinking Anti-SLAPP Laws in the Age of the Internet Andrew L. Roth Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/lawreview Part of the First Amendment Commons, and the Internet Law Commons Recommended Citation Andrew L. Roth, Upping the Ante: Rethinking Anti-SLAPP Laws in the Age of the Internet, 2016 BYU L. Rev. 741 (2016). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/lawreview/vol2016/iss2/11 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Brigham Young University Law Review at BYU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in BYU Law Review by an authorized editor of BYU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. 08.ROTH2.FIN (DO NOT DELETE) 8/12/2016 11:34 AM Upping the Ante: Rethinking Anti-SLAPP Laws in the Age of the Internet In recent decades, policymakers have made a wager on anti-SLAPP legislation. Their wager assumes that anti-SLAPP legislation properly balances the rights of petition and free speech with the right of redress for defamation. With such vital interests at stake, it may seem odd that policymakers are basing their bet on decades-old empirical data and a decidedly narrow theoretical justification. But that is exactly what is happening with anti-SLAPP legislation. This is particularly troubling in light of the recent expansion of anti-SLAPP into the realm of Internet defamation claims, where the stakes for online speakers and those they speak about are exponentially higher.