Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison new legislation Recommended, which requires operators of online platforms to provide personally identifiable data to “trolls” who post defamatory posts on their interfaces, upon request. The bill could be passed next year. According to Morrison, the online world cannot be wild, and trolls should not harass anyone anonymously, just as such behavior is actually unacceptable.
Platforms should establish a complaints reporting system where users can report if they have been a victim of online defamation or harassment. The person posting the problematic content will be first warned to remove the objection/post and in case of non-compliance with the request the victim may take legal action. The court may then order a particular platform to release the postman’s details. Failure to do so may result in a fine to the company.
Critics say that while this would be one of the most draconian anti-defamation laws in the world, it likely wouldn’t be effective enough to reduce the number of online harassment – Writes (a) The guard.
