So I just came across this little interesting article on Yahoo:

Websites Will Be Forced To Identify Trolls

Websites will be legally obliged to provide victims with the identity of people who post abusive and defamatory online messages about them under plans by the Government.

Major reforms of the libel laws will also see internet service providers (ISPs) given greater protection from being sued if they help to identify so-called trolls.

Would-be claimants will have to show they have suffered serious harm to their reputations, or are likely to do so, before they can take a defamation case forward.

In other words, the identity of people who are trolling (or bullying) has to be revealed.

Sky News political correspondent Glen Oglaza said the reforms have widespread support across the parties, so the Bill should make its progress through Parliament pretty quickly.

“What they’re saying is, enough is enough of this cyber-bullying and abuse that’s going on, on websites like Twitter and Facebook,” he said.

“It’s a difficult position because although in theory Facebook and Twitter are the publishers in a way that books and newspapers, and for that matter television companies are, they don’t have the same amount of control over what appears and therefore, it’s more difficult to prosecute them and sue them for libel because in some ways, they’re not responsible.”

[...]

“It needs to be a criminal offence, there needs to be legislation covering cyber-bullying. It’s no good with civil lawsuits,” he told Sky News.

[...]

He added: “It will be very important to ensure that these measures do not inadvertently expose genuine whistleblowers, and we are committed to getting the detail right to minimise this risk.”

If that’s such a good idea… I leave that up to you.

Full Article

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