Austria: Government Seeks to Eliminate Internet Anonymity – With Severe Penalties

[Independent voter]

Users of online forums in Austria will have to provide operators with their true identities or risk fines that could run into the millions.

Those in Austria wishing to post a comment on the internet in the future will no longer be able to do so anonymously. According to the government's new draft law on "Diligence and Responsibility on the Web," users will have to provide their first name, last name and address to platform operators. In the event of an investigation, operators would then have to supply that information to government agencies or, in some cases, to private persons in cases of insult or defamation.

Public posts could still appear under a pseudonym. "The legal requirements that are valid in the analog world must also be valid in the digital world," Media Minister Gernot Blümel, of the center-right Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), said at a press conference. "That is why there is now an abundance of resolutions to make the correction." The so-called "digital anonymity ban," he said, is an additional step in that direction. The plan calls for the law to go into force in 2020.

https://derstandard.at/2000101677286...vere-Penalties

It's a proposed law, meaning it has to be voted on and passed.

Do you think this law is a good thing? Removing anonymity? What would it change?

[enigma77]

what stops people from simply providing fake identities?

[Vapo]

Yea definitely not something to proceed with.

[Noah37]

I'm only confused, is this like for public forums of some kind? Like Government or news agency websites or something? It seems like they couldn't actually prosecute people for any random website. How could they possibly require MMO Champion to actually force individuals to use their true identity, and in that same vein, then provide that data to the Austrian government?

[neik]

You can always use VPN to stop your ISP spying on you.

[Saucexorzski]

authoritarian left wing governments do not care about freedoms, they care about control. This was always going to become a thing with how much power left wing parties have, surprised it took this long tbh. This particular bill may or maynot pass, but it won't be the last and not limited to just australia..

[DrMcNinja]

authoritarian left wing governments do not care about freedoms, they care about control. This was always going to become a thing with how much power left wing parties have, surprised it took this long tbh. This particular bill may or maynot pass, but it won't be the last and not limited to just australia..

Read the article before you spew horseshit all over the thread. This bill was proposed by: Media Minister Gernot Blümel, of the center-right Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the current government is a right wing coalition.

Moving on, this bill is completely ridiculous. They can't have all the platforms they wish to include bend their system solely for their silly law.

[Hablion]

what stops people from simply providing fake identities?

Requiring a State Issued ID which if you faked would likely end you up in Prison for identity theft or falsifying documentation

[horbindr]

current levels of anonymity and free speech on the internet will soon be done. austria is hardly the only government coming up with laws about that topic.

and much like most other laws, people might fight it the first few times it is proposed, but eventually they will get tired of protesting and then it will slip through. no doubt there will always be a solution to get around this, but the consequences for that will increase.

wanna bet that in 5-10 years VPNs will either be illegal for consumers or be heavily regulated/monitored, and that if you do use one you get automatically labeled as a criminal or creep?

and then ofc, 5-10 years after any kind of realID law gets passed there will be some massive data breach, blackmailers will have a field day, careers and marriages will end, etc.

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I'm only confused, is this like for public forums of some kind? Like Government or news agency websites or something? It seems like they couldn't actually prosecute people for any random website. How could they possibly require MMO Champion to actually force individuals to use their true identity, and in that same vein, then provide that data to the Austrian government?

presumably some company of government agency develops a authentication system, which websites then can use some API for. much like how you can login to 3rd party sites using your google/facebook/battle.net accounts. (at least that would be the least insane option, that way the gov knows who you, the website doesn't and you can still use an alias + it offers more protection against websites faking the authentication for phishing.)

and then it just comes down to how much does the government care to enforce that for small/medium sized websites. but the only real way to enforce it is to block the websites since it's hard to fine small foreign companies, but blocking a ton of sites would cause huge political problems so i guess it would just end up being forced on big sites.

[Omega10]

authoritarian left wing governments do not care about freedoms, they care about control. This was always going to become a thing with how much power left wing parties have, surprised it took this long tbh. This particular bill may or maynot pass, but it won't be the last and not limited to just australia..

Liar.

The government of Austria is right wing, not left. You are too smart to not know this.

You lie a lot, but this one was a really stupid lie.

[Mistame]

Are they trying to challenge France for the title of "Europe's Florida"?

current levels of anonymity and free speech on the internet will soon be done.

Considering that the majority of websites and servers are privately owned, I'm not sure how "free speech" is relevant.

[JohnBrown1917]

authoritarian left wing governments do not care about freedoms, they care about control. This was always going to become a thing with how much power left wing parties have, surprised it took this long tbh. This particular bill may or maynot pass, but it won't be the last and not limited to just australia..

A centre-right and far right party are in power in Austria and you call it left wing? lol

[Kokolums]

So if I stole a laptop and an internet connection, and falsified the data, how exactly are they going to catch me? Are they going to have SWAT teams making regular sweeps of every city block to ensure people are following the law?

[horbindr]

Considering that the majority of websites and servers are privately owned, I'm not sure how "free speech" is relevant.

yeah yeah standard rebuttal, super clever hope you pass the bar exam. those companies have to follow the law too, even if they wanted to they can't let you say w/e you want. and the law increasingly says things like remove "bad" content fast, and the definition of "bad" varies and increases a lot lately.

i hear the web archive had to delete a bunch of historic and educational materials because of laws like this. cause urology articles totally fall under terrorism/childporn/copyright/w/e excuse exactly it was right?

[Katchii]

I really don't understand why enforcing accountability for your actions online would be considered a bad thing.

That said, I have no idea how, logistically, this could even be enforced if something like it were to be approved.

[Kokolums]

What if everyone in Austria just made their login credentials public so any citizen could use any other citizens credentials? What then? Do you arrest the entire country?

[Dangg]

It's only for pages that have their servers in Austria and over 100 000 registered users. I don't know which ones even fit that criteria.

[Soot]

It's a proposed law, meaning it has to be voted on and passed.

Do you think this law is a good thing? Removing anonymity? What would it change?

"In addition, web platforms would be required to appoint a liaison in Austria who would be responsible for making information about platform users available if it becomes necessary. If this person does not ensure that the regulation is followed, he or she could be punished with a fine of up to 100,000 euros."

This is not gonna happen. No damned way it will. Companies would simply pull out of Austria. This stuff would not hold up. I'm also thinking that this is not in compliance with the new EU laws on privacy and anonymity.

"The exemption, however, also extends to sites that have often been criticized in the past for allowing hate posts to remain online, such as the platform unzensuriert.at, which is linked to the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the right-wing populist party that is the ÖVP's junior coalition partner in the current government. Blümel justified the exemption by saying it was designed to reduce the potential burden on smaller platforms and start-ups that likely would be unable to afford compliance."

I'm sure even Austrians think this is hillarious. Yeah everyone except these guys have to comply. Cus reasons.
Yeah no this ain't happening.

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It's only for pages that have their servers in Austria and over 100 000 registered users. I don't know which ones even fit that criteria.

Yeah it seems absurdly idiotic to think that this could ever be an effective way to police the internet...

[Usernameforforums]

what stops people from simply providing fake identities?

Idk, social security number, photo id, birth certificate required

[Wilian]

authoritarian left wing governments do not care about freedoms, they care about control. This was always going to become a thing with how much power left wing parties have, surprised it took this long tbh. This particular bill may or maynot pass, but it won't be the last and not limited to just australia..

But Austria has populist right wing government...