Australian Labor Party Trying To Gag Election Debate Online

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au Full article here.

SOUTH Australian laws censoring anonymous political comment on the internet have sparked national and international outrage, with readers comparing the “draconian laws” to those in Nazi Germany and China.

More than 600 people have posted comments on the AdelaideNow website – most vehemently against the Rann Government’s legislation which will force internet bloggers and anyone publishing a comment on next month’s state election to supply their real name and postcode.

A poll reveals more than 90 percent of readers are against the laws, which carry a maximum fine of $5,000 for media organisations who do not hand over such information to the Electoral Commissioner.

I really don’t see this having much effect. A lot of blogs aren’t hosted in South Australia, for example Blogger/Google is an American company. For those who host their own blogs I doubt that there’s anything to worry about there either. Is the government going to employ someone to search the net for election comments without a full name and postcode? What a waste of time!!!

To me this is another example of government not understanding how the Internet works. As I’ve taught my students – no one owns the Internet, it isn’t governed by any one government, there are no universal laws for the Internet, people can host their websites in countries which don’t have laws regarding the Internet.

So I say, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’.

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