Lawsuit: Neo-Nazi website owner is liable for harassing Montana real estate agent

Enlarge / Plaintiff Tanya Gersh of Whitefish, Montana. (credit: Dan Chung)

Lawyers for the Southern Poverty Law Center have sued the owner of a white supremacist website, accusing him of unleashing a "troll storm" of harassment on a Jewish real estate agent.

The lawsuit (PDF) was filed Tuesday against Andrew Anglin, publisher of the Daily Stormer neo-Nazi website. It claims he unleashed a "coordinated, repulsive, threatening campaign of anti-Semitic harassment" on Tanya Gersh, a real estate agent living in Whitefish, Montana. The campaign allegedly resulted in more than 700 threatening phone calls, voicemails, and e-mails.

At issue is whether a prominent publisher of a far-right website can be held legally liable for online "trolling" tactics his articles inspired. Lawyers for Gersh say Anglin violated Montana's "Anti-Intimidation Act" and that he should be made to pay for Gersh's emotional distress and loss of privacy.

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