디지털 사회에서 익명표현의 자유와 잊혀질 권리에 대한 법적 고찰

Since it is difficult to identify the original provider of anonymous remarks or information on the Internet, there is a weakness in protecting personal rights. Anonymity can be seen as one of the major causes of crime among Internet users. Anonymity can serve as an important facilitator for freeing Internet users’ behavior. Allowing anonymity on the Internet makes law enforcement more difficult. However, the right to anonymity is fundamentally related to the general right to personality, and the act of anonymous political expression has a liberal and democratic meaning. The freedom to anonymous express of ideas or opinions falls under the protection domain of freedom of expression. Freedom of anonymous expression is recognized as a fundamental constitutional right in the context of social and normative behavior. It is necessary to balance the legal interests between the freedom of expression of users who communicate anonymously on the network and the moral rights that are infringed by this. Freedom of anonymous expression must also comply with constitutional limitations. Freedom of anonymous expression must satisfy the principle of proportionality, which must be balanced by comparison with the public interest. The right to express and act anonymously does not grant the right to insult or defame others on social networks. The freedom of anonymity faces a dilemma due to modern science and technology. Measures that identify a specific individual’s personal information nullify the anonymity of anonymous Internet users. In the case of re-identification for the purpose of identifying the person who expressed anonymously in the future, the constitutional vulnerability to guarantee anonymity arises. In relation to the right to be forgotten on the Internet in the European Union and Germany, the right to be forgotten is recognized as the right to delete personal information. The right to be forgotten is the right to request deletion of the contents of the posting on the Internet while claiming to infringe on one’s privacy or personal information, but the right to be forgotten should be compared with other legal interests. Information on the Internet, which is essential for public opinion formation, cannot be deleted as it provides essential information for citizens’ discourse. This includes, for example, historically significant records or criminal facts of significant significance.