united-states internet
Is there a law in the U.S. requiring forum owners to log IP addresses of anonymous posts?
<p>First let me specify that this question is about U.S. law. My mentions of EU law are just to put everything into perspective.</p>

<p>I was reading that 4chan is required by law to log IP.</p>

<p>"As required by law, even communities such as 4chan do require the logging of IP addresses of such anonymous posters".</p>

<p>source: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_post" rel="noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_post</a></p>

<p>Does anyone know why? Is it because the posts are made by anonymous users?</p>

<p>My problem is this. My forum is visited by people from EU as well, and according to upcoming EU regulations, EU is increasingly pressuring it's controllers (like forum owners) to anonymize personal data (because if you don't = good luck to you), so that's what I'm trying to do right now regardless of the varying opinions on the matter, but on the other hand, I'm afraid that laws in the US will require me to store full IP once my users are anonymous which would inevitably defeat the purpose, unless such law (if truly existent) would allow me to store truncated IP addresses?</p>

<p>I've searched the web for hours trying to find any info on this, but nothing suggests that there is any such law. Could it be that Wikipedia is simply wrong?</p>

<p>Anyone can say anything on Wikipedia – even <em>they</em> tagged that claim as requiring a citation. There's no way to directly prove that there is no such requirement, but <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/how-long-does-your-isp-store-ip-address-logs-120629/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">these guys</a> maintains that there are no such laws in the US, and <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/us" rel="nofollow noreferrer">EFF</a> says the same thing. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_data_retention#Failed_mandatory_ISP_retention_legislation_attempts" rel="nofollow noreferrer">This Wiki page</a> agrees, giving details about a specific <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Safety_Act" rel="nofollow noreferrer">bill</a> introduced in the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-bill/1076/text" rel="nofollow noreferrer">House</a> and also in the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/senate-bill/436/text" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Senate</a> in the 111th Congress that did not become a law (it did not survive the scrutiny of the judiciary committee in either case). <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr1981" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Another failed attempt</a> was in the 112th Congress.</p>
