By Alice Klein.
Scott Morrison is the Australian Prime Minister.
The picture is MICK tskas/EPA-EFE/
Scott Morrison has said that there are people who are anonymous. The government released draft legislation on December 1st that will force social media companies to expose the identities of anonymous users who post defamatory comments.
Morrison said that the proposed law would be some of the strongest to tackle online troll. He said that the legislation is aimed at protecting women and children who are most vulnerable to online abuse.
The legislation won't stop most forms of online harassment, experts say. It could undermine individuals' privacy and fuel the current trend of government MPs suing their social media critics.
If the proposed Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill is passed, it will allow Australians who feel they have been defamed on social media to request court orders forcing providers to disclose the real names, country locations, phone numbers and email addresses of users who have allegedly defamed them. The idea is to expose troll who have been hiding behind anonymous user names so that legal action can be launched against them if they are also in Australia.
How you and your friends can fight back.
If the social media company can't comply because it doesn't know the real identity of the accused user, it will be held liable for the defamatory comments. It is in the social media company's interests to make sure that they can tell people who this is. Morrison said that they are the ones who will get the case brought against them.
Many people set up accounts with fake details, which is a major problem. She says that requiring users to verify their identities with ID would mean handing over private information.
Beckett says that the proposed law wouldn't deter most kinds of online troll because only a small portion of it actually constitutes defamation. The law in Australia does not prohibit the use of words like "fat" or "ugly" in online harassment.
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Beckett says that the threat of losing anonymity isn't going to change the behavior of social media users who insult others. She says that the legislation isn't going to help the people that the government says it cares about.
The proposed law may benefit some people, including government figures who have the resources to launch defamation cases.
Several high-profile defamation cases have recently been launched by members of Morrison's government against ordinary, non-anonymous citizens on social media. Defence minister Peter Dutton won a defamation case against a refugee advocate. Bazzi was ordered to pay A$25,000 for linking to an article in The Guardian about the rape apologists who were trying to get into Australia.
In March, he told a radio station that he wanted to take legal action against more social media users. He said that some people who are on the social media site are putting out statements that are defamatory. I am going to begin to pick out some of them to file a lawsuit against.
Andrew Laming, a government MP, is taking legal action against Louise Milligan, a journalist at the ABC. She agreed to pay A$79,000 in a defamation settlement. New South Wales MP John Barilaro sued a YouTuber who settled out of court, and government MP AnneWebster sued a Facebook user for defamation.
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The University of Western Australia's Michael Douglas says the government's proposed anti-trolling law could facilitate more defamation cases against ordinary Australians. He says the law is designed to frame government ministers as morally justified in their lawsuits against regular citizens. I would not be surprised if more politicians sued.
The Morrison government introduced a law to target tech companies in order to keep Australians safe from terrorism and organised crime, but has since been used to investigate journalists. The Assistance and Access Act can be used to force secure messaging services to give police access to their data. It was used to investigate ABC reporters after they published allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan, but it was also used in Australia's biggest-ever crime bust in June.
The government has used these powers against criminals, but they have also used them against journalists. She says that the agenda has a negative impact on the capacity of Australians to communicate.
Stakeholders can provide feedback on the proposed Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill before it is formally introduced to the Australian parliament.
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