<
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/03/14/australias-online-safety-commissioner-say-anti-trolling-bill-wont-protect-people-is-mostly-about-enabling-defamation-lawsuits/>
"For a few years now, the Australian government has been seeking to outlaw
online anonymity. This effort has moved forward under the delusional belief
this will somehow result in a new era of online civility, something that has
been repeatedly disproven by similar private sector efforts, like Facebook’s
real name policy (and the downstream utilization of Facebook for website
comment sections).
What’s really driving this effort is Australia’s defamation lawsuit industry.
Requiring the harvesting of contact information by any site utilizing
third-party content makes it much easier for the offended to subject people to
expensive lawsuits, whether or not the content is actually defamatory.
This effort is now mostly redundant now that Australian courts have decided
intermediaries can be held directly responsible for content posted by their
users. Why anyone would choose to sue Joe Extremely-Online when they can reach
into the much deeper pockets of social media platforms is a mystery, but the
Australian government seems unwilling to let this perverse dream of killing
online anonymity die.
But that’s not going to make anyone safer. And the eSafety Commissioner says
the so-called Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill isn’t actually focused on
stopping trolling. Instead, it’s become little more than an exploitable tool
for the Australian government to continue erecting a paradise for venue
shoppers and litigation tourists."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
