On April 23, 2014, an anonymous TripAdvisor user calling themselves "12Kelly" posted a review of the Ashley Inn in Lincoln City, Oregon. The review claimed: "laundry and housekeeping are either high or drunk," "breakfast is nasty, the rooms are nasty," "the owner smokes weed," and that a front desk employee "had phone sex with someone."
The hotel contended 12Kelly never registered as a guest.
The lawsuit
Ashley Inn filed a $74,500 defamation lawsuit in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleging 12Kelly acted "deliberately, maliciously, and willfully with the specific intent to cause damage." The hotel sought to compel TripAdvisor to reveal the reviewer's identity.
The ruling
On December 30, 2014, the judge refused to compel TripAdvisor to reveal 12Kelly's identity, applying Oregon's Media Shield Law. The court found TripAdvisor qualifies as "a medium of communication" and could therefore protect its reviewer as a confidential source — just like a newspaper protecting a whistleblower.
What this case reveals
The Ashley Inn case established a troubling precedent: anonymous reviewers can make potentially defamatory claims about a business, and the platform hosting those claims is legally protected from having to identify the author. Business owners are left fighting shadows — unable to confront their accusers or verify whether the reviewer ever stepped through their doors.