I’m wondering the citizens of Australia are wondering why in the heck they haven’t forced passage of a Bill of Rights, especially in the wake of the tyranny of the Australian national, province, and city governments since the start of the Chinese coronavirus. Now we get this
Australia to introduce new laws to force media platforms to unmask online trolls
Australia will introduce legislation to make social media giants provide details of users who post defamatory comments, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday.
The government has been looking at the extent of the responsibility of platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, for defamatory material published on their sites and comes after the country’s highest court ruled that publishers can be held liable for public comments on online forums.
The ruling caused some news companies like CNN to deny Australians access to their Facebook pages.
“The online world should not be a wild west where bots and bigots and trolls and others are anonymously going around and can harm people,” Morrison said at a televised press briefing.
Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words ZOMG WORDS ARE SO MEAN PEOPLE SHOULD BE DOXXED AND SHAMED AND EVEN THROWN IN JAIL!
The new legislation will introduce a complaints mechanism, so that if somebody thinks they are being defamed, bullied or attacked on social media, they will be able to require the platform to take the material down.
If the content is not withdrawn, a court process could force a social media platform to provide details of the commenter.
Let’s be honest: this is not about randos saying mean things on social media, in comments, through email. I get plenty of nasty comments and emails. I either respond with a kill them with kindness attitude or just delete it. I’m mostly Tim.
It’s about those in the Australian government mad that those damned serfs dare say mean things, demand action, slam government officials for misconduct, etc, an anonymity. And they want that stopped. Are the citizens clamoring for this law? Or, is it government officials? I’d bet on the latter, and I’ll bet this is used more by government than any citizen, who doesn’t have the resources to be filing complaints and suits because someone wrote a mean tweet. Having rights like Freedom of Speech and others embedded in the very fabric of the Constitution would be nice about now, right?
