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Australian government vows to unmask online trolls

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While trolling is bad it will be extremely difficult to define and police. The Aussie govt is seriously becoming a nanny state dictatorship. They should butt out of people's lives.

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Australian government vows to unmask online trolls

excellent! about time! Wanna post? Use your own damn name. Aliases should be made illegal

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Good move!

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whose conservative coalition government faces an election in the first half of 2022, said the law would protect Australians from online abuse and harassment.

Oh Scott you mean like the way you are bullying those who refuse the vaccine? You can start with censoring yourself. You can’t have it both ways although that’s the general aim of most politicians these days.

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Trolling is a huge problem. Many people don't know how to deal it, they can't hit back as the trolls hide their identities. Many of who do it just for fun I am sure. There have been countless cases of victims of trolls killing themselves.

They probably wont be able to police it but if a few here or there are named and shamed especially in a case where someone did commit suicide, they would lose jobs maybe, face public humiliation. Then other trolls might just think twice.

Anything that stops the worst of it can't be a bad thing.

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Aly,

I would tend to agree with you but I got doxed by one of our regular posters for using my real name.

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Spot on, Aly Rustom.

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And what about my legal, copyright pseudonym? And what do I do about my ISBN identification? Change all that to my legal name? In Canada? When the Chinese do it, when the Russians, European, African and Americans do it, I will. But, I'll be dead by then.

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Sounds good to me. Might lead to more civility on the internet.

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Hm. I want to believe that this will be a good thing, but I can't be too sure. It's hard to be convinced by this suggestion, as it sounds a lot like any number of other empty promises in the past that politicians from many countries love to throw out there for vote-baiting.

It has the potential to be a good thing, if suitably defined and policed. If social media giants are dragged through the mud enough times on this issue, it might finally force them to actually tackle trolling. Especially Facebook. They really need to do something. It's mostly Facebook trolling that leads to victim suicide, and Facebook just doesn't care. Mark Zuckerbot doesn't have any emotions, after all. But if Facebook are dragged through enough mud and faced with enough penalties, maybe they'll finally address trolling and cyber-bullying in general. It needs to be tackled.

We'll just have to see. Either something will come of this, or it'll just be another fart in the wind.

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Legislators will have to define the action of when a so called troll makes a deliberatively provocative action or statement in law.

As will the term vile, a nasty unpleasant, wicked and morally offence trop. And then accept the consequence to freedom of expression and free speech.

A fools errand, a lawyers charter.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Many choose the anonymity of user names, not to troll, but to avoid potential harassment from others. - Who knows what mayhem can occur, strictly for having an opposing view or opinion than others?

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With all due respect, confusing, or contradictory? *@TrevorPeace 10:13-10:16am ***? - If **@AlyRustom 8:10am is “Spot on” about posting with actual, given ‘legal’ names, then why the need for “*my legal ‘pseudonym’” *??

A pseudonym by definition is a ‘false or fictitious’ name, oft used by writers such as yourself. Not ‘doxing’ you as @GdTokyo 10:05am claims but a pseudonym is understandable for a self-professed “former rock star-(bass)musician” such as yourself.

However, It’s still attempting to maintain a degree of separation and anonymity between one’s professional works and their personal lives.

*- @TrevorPeace 10:13am: “Spot on, Aly Rustom”:[“excellent! about time! Wanna post? Use your own damn name. Aliases should be made illegal*”]

*- @TrevorPeace 10:16am: “And what about my legal, copyright pseudonym? And what do I do about my ISBN identification? Change all that to my legal name?”*

and, sorry, don’t know what to make of the following:

“In Canada? When the Chinese do it, when the Russians, European, African and Americans do it, I will. But, I'll be dead by then”.

? -
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At least some connection to a real ID that can be attributed to you. It doesn't necessarily need to be publicly available for individual protections but if it comes up in legal proceedings it should be readily available.

Honestly, if you wouldn't say it in person, you shouldn't say it online either frankly.

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As a passionate troll, I am against these laws.

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Holding tech companies accountable for what others say and do is vicarious atonement and has no place in any reputable legal system. This is a backhanded way of ending Web 2.0, which empowers everyone by giving them a voice on the net. Governments would like to end that, censoring and silencing people. The Aussie legislation sets a precedent of dictatorial control over net services.

Denying people anonymity would be a death sentence in some countries, especially for women. It would end whistleblowing and #MeToo style movements and allow the government to silence its critics. If you criticise the government in some countries, and had to use your real name, the supporters of the regime would dox you and pay you a visit in the night, kicking down your door and beating you and your family to death. Meanwhile, corporations can train their interns by getting them to destroy the lives of critics of their goods and services with huge fines and legal bills.

We need to allow more leeway/freedom in democratic countries, so that we do not ease and justify state control of the internet in less democratic countries.

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excellent! about time! Wanna post? Use your own damn name. Aliases should be made illegal

I disagree with you on this, Aly Rustom, but I do commend you for using your real name and putting your money where your mouth is.

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There are differences of opinion (for example the proper level of taxation or the role of government) and then there are flat-out lies.

I am and remain a big defender of free speech but I have been wondering for a while how Democracy survives when people are allowed to post and say flat out lies, for example about vaccine efficacy or voter fraud, things that are objectively false. Things that motivate gullible rubes to do things like attempt to overthrow the legally elected government in an attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election.

I do not know how Democracy endures in an environment in which out right lies are allowed to pass as fact.

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… how many …

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This whole thing is designed by Morrison to discourage criticism of him and his merry band of corrupt mates. There is plenty to criticise this Govt about, and like any Right Wing regime they only see the way around this is to threaten everybody. Ànd they have the gaul to criticise China.

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Corporations are involved @Reckless 9:09am. YouTube has removed the public view of the number of “dislikes” but the option for individual comments can still be left open IF the video poster chooses:

“YouTube will still let you dislike a video, but the world will never know” - “The dislike counter will be removed from the platform” Nov 10, 2021 

https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/22775015/youtube-dislike-counter-button-change-blog-announcement

@Reckless 9:09am:“Long long overdue. Comments on yahoo got so bad they discontinued them.” -

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'Troll' is generally just someone whose views you disagree with.

Words don't hurt. Even small children know that 'sticks and stones ...'

If someone says something you don't agree with you can either debate with him or ignore him, but you'd have to be mentally extremely feeble to get upset about it.

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P. SmithToday  07:08 am JST

Conservatives whining for more governmental intervention in the markets because they can’t compete. They are just using the defamation claim as an angle. Hypocritical.

For once I agree with you. Hell has indeed frozen over.

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No that is wrong. If the true identity was used people could be traced by crazy nutters hell-bent on doing harm. Children would also be identified.

sorry mate. I have to disagree. Want to post? You have to take the risk that someone will take issue with what you say. I don't see the point in saying your opinion if no one even knows who you are.

I disagree with you on this, Aly Rustom, but I do commend you for using your real name and putting your money where your mouth is.

And I commend you and Zichi as well as people like Cleo for disagreeing with me amicably, which unfortunately many posters here and on other platforms don't know how to do, hence my opinion.

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StewieToday  11:58 am JST

This whole thing is designed by Morrison to discourage criticism of him and his merry band of corrupt mates. There is plenty to criticise this Govt about, and like any Right Wing regime they only see the way around this is to threaten everybody. Ànd they have the gaul to criticise China.

You're half right, but confining the blame to rightwing governments (who certainly are guilty - no argument there) ignores what Obama was trying to do as well, thankfully to no avail.

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And I commend you and Zichi as well as people like Cleo for disagreeing with me amicably, which unfortunately many posters here and on other platforms don't know how to do, hence my opinion.

Thank you. As I say, while I don't share your view (I think a degree of anonymity can be beneficial for people online, especially the vulnerable) I've gotta give you respect for not just talking the talk but walking the walk of your beliefs. There's nothing better to convince people than leading by example.

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I know you use your real name but without verification, we only accept your would for that.

While I am by no means advocating online stalking, doxxing, or anything of the sort, I can say that Aly Rustom has been honest with his name to the point that it is trivially easy to confirm that he is who he says he is.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Understand, respect & appreciate all the “parody” avatars here and on other sites, especially when they’re a goofy form of self-expression and/or purposefully chosen to express, oft contradictory viewpoints of their original intent or affiliation. Most are “Well played!” and hopefully, they can continue here.

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I can smell my own hypocrisy. Also, I think Aly just ruined JT for me because there’s no way in hell I’m using my real name on any anonymous message board and I abhor hypocrisy.

Sorry mate. Didn't mean to do that. Plus, you are not a troll, so fair enough.

Appreciate that one, Aly. No sarcasm or negativity at all.

right back at you brother.

I know you use your real name but without verification, we only accept your would for that.

You can find me on Facebook Zichi and can confirm my identity. Ricky Kaminsky has contacted me as has Simon Foston and Antiquesaving. I'm Friends with all of them on Facebook. Feel free to drop me a line and that goes for express sister as well as ANYONE else who wants to contact me. All are welcome and it is very easy to find me on Facebook.

how would people be protected if they were required to use real names?

To be honest, this is a risk that I feel people should accept if they want to post. Also, online threats ARE in fact against the law so there is already SOME degree of protection.

You would be happy to upload personal info to verify your ID which could be hacked?

You do know that many people here are signed on through their facebook account. Also the moderators should be able to check and determine if someone signs in with a bogus facebook/ instagram etc account-or they can submit verification to the moderators.. there are many ways to do this.

How would children be protected from abusers?

By their parents who should be monitoring their online activity anyway. There also should be some age verification that prevents children from posting- we do after all have protections in place for porn and other online activity. Why not posting?

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I am leaving work here in a couple of minutes, so I will not be posting any more today. I will pick up this tread tomorrow morning at around 7:30 am. This is a VERY interesting discussion and I do enjoy a good debate and disagreeing with amicable ladies and gentlemen like those on this thread, so I will pick this up tomorrow, so look for me here tomorrow morning. I bid you all a good afternoon!

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The question is whether the effect of the laws, regulations, and practices will be to shut down unpopular truths while promoting popular lies, instead of just individual trolls.

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Those doing nothing wrong should have nothing to fear. Abusing or intimidating others should be wrong no matter if online or in person.

If your a bully and cant help yourself, then perhaps you should face penalties.

Being civil to others should not be hard or out of the ordinary.

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Using a digital device to troll people and thinking your being anonymous is extremely naive.

Those evil doers that enjoy the defamation and terrorism of others will be held accountable.

There's a digital record of everything.

With the new supercomputers freedom of speech is a whole new ball game.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Saying it is all very nice, but sounds rather hollow as a question comes to mind such as, how do you intend on enforcing it GLOBALLY? Considering a fact that VPN is now a must use tool for anyone who prefers privacy.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I must say that I love your comment snout not posting further because you’re leaving work!

I must confess I post here during lulls in work. I rarely post at home, during a commute, and never during the weekend or a holiday. Life is too short.

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No reason at all to hide my name or data. I don’t give in to all those simple-structured censors, commies, ‘woke’ , pseudo-greens and such other similar people with no knowledge, wrong opinions and any sick religion or ideology. You can bring them all on, they can’t stand truth, expertise and arguments and never will. I only give in or accept different opinions from the very few people I consider above my capabilities and knowledge in some certain contexts. No problem, in those very rare cases they of course deserve it, that I bow and change my point of views.

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@P. Smith - I was referring to published books. That's what ISBN numbers are for. And there are too many famous authors in the history of literature who did not use their real names.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The Australian government is urinating into a very stiff breeze. There are many ways to hide one's on line identity if one is determined to do so. About the best they can expect is for social media to "moderate" (self-censor) all posts before they become readable by others. Short of that there is no way to find every troll, especially when many of them have the governments protecting them from identification. The direction Australia is taking is akin to that of China and not something to be proud of. Education and a well reasoned counter argument are the best remedy for trolls.

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The Federalist Papers were authored by three different people and published in a long series under the pseudonym of "Publius". Was that "trolling"? I think the Aussies need to take a step back and re-think their approach. I think in this day and age when people can show up at your front door and harass you and your family for expressing an unpopular point of view using pseudonyms makes great sense.

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