Australia is trying to make it harder to be an internet troll.
Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister, has said that the government will introduce legislation that will force social media companies to hand over the personal information of users who post defamatory comments. This sounds like a privacy nightmare waiting to happen, and I am all for cracking down on troll and hate speech.
If someone suspects they are being defamed, bullied, or attacked on online platforms, a newly established complaint mechanism would require these platforms to take the offending posts down. The court system could order the site to give information about the user behind the posts if they refuse to remove the material.
Morrison said during a televised press conference on Sunday that the online world shouldn't be a Wild West. That is not Australia. There is no case for that happening in the digital world.
In September, the country's High Court ruled that news publishers can be held liable for the comments readers post on their social media pages. CNN shut down its Facebook page in Australia due to liability concerns.
Morrison wants to take the fight to the troll themselves, and he wants to penalize social media companies that fail to moderate their platforms. If online platforms don't want to play ball, he's ready to take them to court.
He said that the online companies must have processes to take down the content. There needs to be a quick and easy way for people to raise issues with these platforms and have them taken down. They have the responsibility. They need to make this space safe. We will make them with laws like this if they don't.
Privacy questions are raised by that. Anonymity on the internet protects the identity of vulnerable populations and those that would challenge authority, but it also shields troll. It's difficult to understand how vile someone's posts have to be before Australia's government can step in and force platforms to remove them.
The legislation is expected to reach the nation's parliament by early next year, according to ABC News Australia.
