Seems to be a movement amongst Australian politicians to 'make people use their real names' on twitter, fora and other online sites to stop that pesky 'cyber bullying' stuff.
Not sure how they think it'll work, but when legislators start making these noises I get concerned.
The idea of people being accountable for what they say is nice, but I can't see how the fuck it'd work for both technical and legal reasons.
Technically, how would we and other websites confirm the identity of visitors? Would potential users show up at my place with their drivers license for me to authorise their account?
Legally it's a quagmire with far too many jurisdictions in play. When they still can't shut down the pirate bay, you've gotta wonder how they'll block sites that don't enforce real names. Sites like twitter have millions of users and no registered Australian business, why would they care what Australian lawmakers decree any more than the Chinese lawmakers?
Not sure how they think it'll work, but when legislators start making these noises I get concerned.
The idea of people being accountable for what they say is nice, but I can't see how the fuck it'd work for both technical and legal reasons.
Technically, how would we and other websites confirm the identity of visitors? Would potential users show up at my place with their drivers license for me to authorise their account?
Legally it's a quagmire with far too many jurisdictions in play. When they still can't shut down the pirate bay, you've gotta wonder how they'll block sites that don't enforce real names. Sites like twitter have millions of users and no registered Australian business, why would they care what Australian lawmakers decree any more than the Chinese lawmakers?