SALINE COUNTY, AR - "You are after free speech," writes an anonymous user on mysaline.com.
"When you start messing with that, you're not messing with just bryant - but the whole country," said the website's creator Shelli Russell.
Bloggers are lashing back to a lawsuit filed against them, Wednesday, by three Bryant city council members Brenda Miller, Danny Steele and Adrian Henley. The lawsuit claims anonymous users on mysaline.com are writing libelous and defamatory remarks about the aldermen.
"There's nothing specific listed in there as to what it is they're talking about that could be defamatory or construed as cyber bullying," said Russell.
Arkansas state law reads it's "sufficient to state generally that the defamatory matter was published or spoken," requiring no specifics. Still, Russell has hired her own attorney and despite a subpoena asking to release information to trace these anonymous users, she's not giving it up.
"I want people to have their privacy and it's not necessary to have that information out there," she said.
Saturday, over the phone, the council member's attorney Tona DeMers responded "Just because she's fighting it doesn't mean she'll be successful," that she has "hundreds of pages of evidence" proving malicious intent and that this goes "way beyond any first amendment privilege."
But this isn't stopping Russell.
"I like to provide a website that builds community - does not tear it down," she said. "And sometimes you have to go to war to have peace."
As for her anonymous users, they're still posting.
"As we sit here and talk, there's more going online right now," said Russell.
Russell is in the process of organizing what she calls a free speech rally to raise funds to pay for legal fees sometime in early March.
