Anti-troll laws could force social media companies to give out names and contact details

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In an attempt to crack down on trolls, the federal government proposes new social media laws that could force companies to reveal names of anonymous users.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he wanted to close the gap between real life and discourse online."The online world shouldn't be a wild west, where bots and bigots and trolls and others can anonymously go around and harm people and hurt people."

The complaints process will allow people to ask that material be taken down by a user if they feel it is defamatory. If the user does not consent to their details being released, a court order can be made requiring the company to release them — allowing the complainant to pursue defamation action.

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Hey just wonder if you guys are going to be open this sunday?

Helping the LNP government distract from their atrocious performance

Morrison stopping criticism as defammation nor threats are his goal. Why should they be when there are laws for both ALREADY? When social media giants ALREADY, routinely cooperate with police on those. Like vote id laws, both fixes in the favour of evil, authoritarian LNP regime.

Funny how the ABC seems to have omitted the passerby yelling out 'Liar' & how good is it to see that Michaelia looks very uncomfortable being there?

If the govt cared about transparency, it could respond to FOI requests by releasing documents, instead of blocking them at every turn.

Old news. Pulling up LNP talking points from 2019 now are we? compromised

Anti tax evasion laws would force Trusts to give out names and contact details of beneficiaries. $80Billion profits in 2020 to who knows who

This is not an 'anti-troll law', this is a transparently authoritarian effort to silence critics of the LNP on social media by 'naming and shaming' them, never mind Morrison's previously said employers 'should consider who they're employing' in the result of such unveiling!

ScottMorrisonMP, desperate to provide cover for last week's disastrous sitting period, has announced ill considered laws designed to silence his opposition as he faces election defeat. There, I fixed it for you

Government must be pleased about the framing. 'Anti-troll' Could have used a few other labels. Anonymity ending law? ID collection law?

It's all hot air, he said the same at the last election along with an integrity commission and religious freedom bills. Still waiting.

What is this? The Australian CCP? This is just about sooky politicians trying to control what we say out loud about them. This is so they can sue their critics. Again all about saving their own arses while they delay the promised microscope on their missing integrity.

Will New Zealand offer political asylum to such people? SocialMedia auspol

Like the names of sneakyscott 's anonymous staffers that do backgrounding on ScottMorrisonMP 's behest or the names of his anonymous followers? We need a federal ICAC now

how many liberal or LNP MPs will be found out? Cash, Stoker, Laming, and so many others have multiple accounts so they can troll or self promote

Constantly reported. Never happens. All sizzle and no steak, like most of what FauxMo says. Why not cover the real reason ScottyTheGaslighter hates social media? Because his lies are called out there! liarMorrison

The government wants to face a class action for breaches of privacy? Ok then.

Good God.. this is what the Australian PM is using his time and energy on? Not climate change or green energy, Not anti-corruption, Not Covid and safety measures, Not international relations, Not far-right extremism/conspiracy..... instead he concentrates on online trolls 🙄

Social media giants could choose to block those MPs, media publishers and journos who insist on spreading misinformation that social media is doing something wrong.

Well that’s gotta be the quickest way to get themselves voted out of government, if ever I saw one. What are we? Nazi Germany or Communist China?

Does this mean no more right wing troll bots? Whatever will Scotty do without them?

There is only one reason for these laws, that is to stop criticism of the government. auspol

Scomo suggested today that all of these trolls and bots are hanging out in their basements. Does anyone know roughly how many domestic basements we have in Australia?

Isn't it great for Scott that you're concentrating on this rather than the lack of a FederalICAC or of dedicated Quarantine now Omicron is coming? Scott throws this up as a distraction every 6 months or so: has he played you or do you know what you're doing?

What about media companies that have comment sites, discussion forums, and gather user data through subscriptions and sign on protocols?

An announcement a day keep the headlines his way!

Will this stop Liberal & National Party politicians making up lies about Labor policies and what Labor is responsible for? auspol

I find it hilarious that Morrison and his Mob think that they can force Facebook/Twitter to require users to supply names/contact details , when the database's ability to safely store such personal information securely is questionable.And then there’s US Privacy Act 1974

Megaphoning ScottyTheAnnouncer

'The PARLIAMENT shouldn't be a wild west, where bots and bigots and trolls and others can anonymously go around and harm people and hurt people'

Yeah whatever...ScottyDoesNothing is a liar.

Oh no

I would consider Malcolm Roberts/ One Nation twerp to be a troll ...giving out Jacqui Lambie's phone number...in a vengeful swipe. However ...that hasn't raised Scott's antenna!!!

The recent high court decision has caused a lot of stress for people that run Facebook groups and pages. Thank god it will be clarified and the responsibility will fall on the SM companies and not the average person.

Lots of partisans in the replies up in arms about this. I wonder how many of them were upset back when Labor tried to implement similar laws to protect against 'online harm'. Both sides push this nonsense.

Oh no

Oh no

That is the point. We have an increasingly authoritarian & secretive government who hate free press & free speech. In fact exactly the same as the Woke crowd.. Funny that!

If twitter shuts down we all move to MSN!!!!

Angus Taylor doesn't like this

Finally, consequences!!

So what is the media doing about it? Isn’t every historic investigation triggered by an anonymous source? Isn’t every political and corporate wrongdoing uncovered by a protected whistleblower? Trolls are systematically blocked and reported. How is that insufficient?

So far 2 offenders identified - and BOTH are Liberal pollies! Andrew Laming and Amanda Stoker. Wonder how many more? please stop reporting breathlessly and point out Morrison is creating a diversion to cover NOT bring its ICAC into parliament.

How many Govt politicians have been sued for defamation?

Well... Funny how Morrison keeps banging on abt not wanting China taking away Aussie's way of life & now he's doing what CCP is doing... restricting & surveilling citizens on SM. Feeling like he's inching us towards an autocracy?😬 AustraliaDeservesBetter Auspol

Fascism. Time for Australians to stand up to this excuse of a government and time for many commentators and journalists to wake up and take a stand no matter who they work for. Even a child can see where we are headed if this lot are not kicked out.

In the Leigh Sales article linked she says she is abused by politicians. That neither the MSM or politicians are going to do anything about that says a lot. Maybe society acts the way our leaders do.

'And just like that , Playboy magazine had more credit than ABCNews.'

Another step closer to jailing anyone that disagrees with the govt.

Thanks for amplifying Scott’s thought bubble. This “announcement” has been made 3 times to my best recollection over the last 12 months. auspol media

Could try to

This is all about censorship not trolling. Self protection for Morrison & co, they are one of the largest sources of misinformation in Australia Who is the big winner here,News Corp? They have a dependent PM which they setup for his first job in federal politics.

Why should it be the companies problem what some idiots choose to post?

Corporatocracy voter suppression and spying on citizens.

Well, I received unsolicited F/Book political messages from Craig Kelly, Clive Palmer, Campbell Newman this week, I found them bullying, disgusting & an insult to my intelligence. I should be able to to report them for invading my privacy.

As long as I have a right to limit what information they can see, other then that I don't give permission for the Australian government to spread my personal (already accesable information). This will make it easier for trolls..

Then they'd damn sure need to hurry up & have every account ID verified as even a Geo-social foot print request means jumping through hoops just to get IP trace information. Long overdue that accounts be verified and all the KPOP trolls, criminals, pedo's & underage need removed

How on earth would this work? So Twitter and Facebook have to identify their millions of users. Think this is just a political vote catcher

Another way true political correctness takes away the freedom of speech from the people. Not talking about hate speech, but the right to be angry and critical of the powerful and influential, especially the media. Silence dissent, control information and communication. Propaganda

So will be like America where the Left is ok but the Right are silenced

How many trolls do you see? None... it is a fictitious term applied to anyone who opposes their propaganda narrative threads.

Will this include ScottMorrisonMP ‘s bots and trolls? ScottyFromPhotoOps

How can you Troll when Sensitive MP,s are Blocked .

LOL

imagine if all political donations were made transparent and a political party forced to disclose those donors. Say like to cover legal costs of a party member?

So basically in a nutshell, Scotty from marketing is getting sick of people criticising him on social media 🤣🤣🤣

Except if you’re a member of the liberal party?

This will allow politicians to refer Australians to the fixated persons unit of the police who criticise the government publicly. It's a law by the government for the government to prevent freedom of speech & transparency to hide corruption. No accountability auspol2021 auspol

That's not going to end well.

FederalICAC first & foremost.

Ill conceived and untenable but it plays nicely to the LNP voter base. “People are sick of governments controlling their lives”😂😂😂😂😂

Our government is perhaps one of the most out of touch/inept groups of people I have ever seen. Absolute lunacy.

Can we have anti-politician laws to hold politicians to account for the insufferable number of lies they tell on a regular basis? I’d suggest a sentence of 1 year hard labour per lie.

Excellent move. If you don’t have the strength of conviction to put your own name to your comments then keep them to yourself. These turkeys who hide behind a nom de plume are gutless

New, Federal government introduces WeChat and WeiBo. Introduces a one child policy and calls itself the People's Republic of China.

Unless they mandate the upload of a State issued ID the laws are worthless. A quick Google search and a logless VPN and you can easily obtain a free temporary email and phone number for verification purposes. The effort it would take to track you down then outweighs the payoff

lee_manwaring Welcome to 1984.

A butthurt PM from the free speech party wants to silence critics, not trolls but critics. There’s a difference. Scotty won’t be happy until Twitter shuts up shop on Aus. Of course this will effect the rather large army of ScottsBots too right?

VPN providers are gearing up the marketing as we speak

Lol, I don't think so Privacy laws should protect our information And unless AlboMP has a brain fart it'll never get up👍 By the way ScottMorrisonMP is a failure And a cultist Facts 👍

Hope that’s including politicians and their staff

Aren't we getting tired of politicians telling us what to do.

ok who the fuck made scomo cry bc he's clearly doing this bc he got made fun off to much

Journalists will have to put their names to the tweets they write, particularly under a blue-tick brand, like the ABC. Remember, the majority of media dullards in the press gallery endorsed Morrison to stay as PM in 2019 federal elections. So suck it up. AusMedia

You may find a link between the anti-vaxxers on FB to the ones harassing The Premier. This is a dangerous precedent that needs to be prosecuted.

It would be a violation of their policy to give out personal info . Consumers then have every right to sue .

The Party Of Free Speech

This is just another LNP policy that wants to look good but has no way of being realistically enforced.

Not sure how effective this will be. Also slippery slope law also applies here in respect of free speech eg when does valid criticism of a government, say, become trolling. Also, I don’t know how you compel a corporate in another country to comply with these laws? But good luck!

FederalICAC ICACnow I have to ask the obvious question…. Would this block up the courts with trivial Twitter he said/she said bull💩 that is usually sorted by using the block button, or is this the new business model for the poor struggling legal profession? EnoughIsEnough

What about anti-pron laws ? Any child can type into google hard core anl and away they go......

Anti-troll laws or anti-dissent laws?

NordVPN expressvpn how about a pro-free speech sale for us poor Australians?

It's like the Dr in Wuhan who alerted the world about Covid on SM but was shut down by the government. I hate it when to government tells people what to do. Sarcasm

Where's the FederalICAC? Government corruption is doing way way way more damage to this country than some pissy anon SM troll. Again these CCP anti privacy laws suit the LNP in their electioneering to counter SM exposures that their LameStream propagandists won't expose

That should hopefully sort out govt ministers and their enablers who constantly troll the public with their endless bovine excrement! auspol

Booooo

This can't be policed properly unless the US enforces proof of ID. It is trivial to use common legal publicly accessible methods to register totally anonymous accounts in bogus regions. I imagine most prolific anonymous accounts would already confidently untouchable.

And the list goes on and on and on. And our govt says China are outta control. Our govt has become communist.

Because throwing anonymous insults on Twitter is so much more dangerous to democracy than throwing an anonymous $1 million into a politician’s bank account.

We're on our way to a Chinese Communist Party style censorship of social media.

So. Now all democratic govts are becoming more and more communist by the day. They're gonna dictate how you get paid and what you spend it on if you're a pensioner or on welfare. They're gonna make social media unsafe for people by removing anonymity. Force you to take medication

Cannot possibly go wrong, or be abused in any way. Especially in light of our stifling defamation laws.

Are you sure wumaos are giving true names and contact details?

Scomo is under the false assumption that I won’t call him a cnut to his face.

Morrison has a bag full of dead cats and he's not afraid to use them.

Meanwhile the government also pushes the 'religious discrimination bill' that lets people be bigots freely without consequence. Pick a fucking lane

Naturally it would be easier to shut down Twitter which suits Morrison

Clickbait

Wasn't there a South Park episode like this.

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