Posted on 05/24/2012 4:17:21 PM PDT by mdittmar
(CBS News) New York state lawmakers have proposed a ban on anonymous online comments.
Called the Internet Protection Act (A.8688/S.6779), the legislation would require a web site administrator to pull down anonymous comments from sites, including "social networks, blogs forums, message boards or any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages."
The bill states:
A web site administrator upon request shall remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate. All web site administrators shall have a contact number or e-mail address posted for such removal requests, clearly visible in any sections where comments are posted.
Among the bills' sponsors are New York Assemblyman Dean Murray and Sen. Thomas O'Mara, who say the proposed law is to fight cyberbullying.
"Cyberbullying has become one of the great tragedies of the Internet age," O'Mara said at a press conference. "Numerous national studies tell us that upwards of 40 percent of students have experienced some form of cyberbullying at least once, and they feel helpless in the face of it. Victims of anonymous cyberbullies need protection. We're hopeful that this legislation can be helpful to the overall effort to deter and prevent anonymous criminals from hiding behind modern technology and using the Internet to bully, defame and harass their victims."
Critics of the bills claim the law will infringe upon free speech.
"This statute would essentially destroy the ability to speak anonymously online on sites in New York," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney with the Center for Democracy and Technology told Wired, adding that anyone who disagrees with a heckler could have the comment taken down.
The proposed law raises questions over privacy and security, as well. The bill would allow website owners access to private information, like a user's home, e-mail and IP address.
A basic website can be operated by as little as one person. The bill would give that website administrator full access to private information, with no additional security provisions for users who would have to hand over their personal information.
Additionally, website administrators currently don't have to disclose their identity to users and can pay to protect their personal information from the WHOIS registry. If the legislation is enacted, the personal information exchange would be a one-way street.
Currently, no votes have been taken on the legislation.
China is big on this too.
What’s his email?
I will gladly tell him FU and give my name gives a address.
i guess they don’t like not being able to control the conversation
not to mention, the internet is a great way to expose their corruption
Both of the bill’s sponsors are RINOS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Dean_Murray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_O’Mara
Two idiot RINOs at that.
Translation: you cannot use an online forum you build or create the way you see fit. The lawmakers of New York know best.
both R’s
Moslems would love this. They could target whoever didn’t want to live according to Sharia.
If anything like this passes, I’ll change my online name to “Cocky McSorely.”
Time to round up “Publius”, “Philo-Publius”, “Cato” and “Brutus” and string them up.
Assemblyman Dean Murray and Sen. Thomas O’Mara.
These stupid Democrats should bullied by all.
These politicians are either evil or crazy. Or both.
Signed
Yuri Knoll
Pittsburgh
When you’re a FASCIST POS I suppose free speech is among the least of your problems. So why do these pukes want to eliminate it?
I find it interesting how “bullying” is being used as an excuse here to limit privacy.
In other contexts, bullying is a pretext for introducing the homosexual agenda in schools.
What next?
They are Republicans.
Cyberbullying? I have had it with the wimp-wicks that can’t handle that and whose feelings are bruised because someone said something that upset the poor darlings. This is just a variant of hate crime and those RINOs should be ashamed of themselves.
Karl Rove and the rest of the GOP-e find anonymous speech inconvenient.
And how is the State of New York going to show that they have jurisdiction over any website?
Of course they’ll sell is as ‘We just want everyone to have a more pleasant Internet experience by using one ID number similar to a Social Security number’ when in actuality it will be for the purposes of the government profiling each and every American citizen into groups, with the anti-socialists being sent to internment camps for re-indoctrination training.
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