New York legislators are thinking through a new statute that would actually ban anonymous speech on the Internet. This – so far – is only being brought forward for any site that operates in New York or allegedly anyone commenting from a NY IP Address but still.
See the bill in question here via WordswithMeaning! Research
The bill calls for the administrators of New York-based websites to “remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post.”
“any individual who posts a message on a website including social networks, blogs forums, message boards, or any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.”
Many websites (such as this one for instance) pride themselves on the simple anonymous comment policy – one that I like to call “type and send”. We don’t want your information, and we are all for random anonymous fake email addressed comments. Why? Because it’s quicker, less daunting and it isn’t as counter-productive as having to request the readers to create accounts and hand over their data just for a simple response or opinion.
The days of New Yorkers using a pseudonym would be long gone if this were to go ahead – and wait, these guys tell us online privacy is important right?
It’s a far-fetched proposition, one that I doubt will reach reality, but it just goes to show that the internet regulators are out there to bubble wrap everything.
