Interesting
article in IT Pro about a new bit of draft (daft) Legislation being proposed by the UK Government, the
Draft Defamation Bill. Reading through the article I'm not entirely sure who they're trying to blame and/or hold accountable or responsible for cleaning up the mess caused by Trolls or defamatory posts. Without reading further (and based on what's written in the article) this has the potential to set a very dangerous precedent.. exactly who is making the judgement call that "9/11 was an inside job" to use a topical example, is a defamatory statement that merits the invocation of what then would be a 'breach' under the Deformation Bill?
In fact, why is it even necessary for this to be written up? This website, as all others on the Internet, has it's own, albeit generic, Terms & Conditions that allows matters of defamation etc, to be dealt with in whatever appropriate manner is deemed fit by the sites owner - Facebook, Twitter, DigitalArtists et-al can all pull, delete or remove accounts because users voluntary acquiesce to that as a condition of use. In other words, by proxy there already exists a *private mechanism* to deal with most issues that occur to which this Bill seems to infer no-one but the State has the authority to deal with. For the Senior Staff Writer on IT Pro (c/f the box-out comment on site) to make or imply this is anything but a private property matter is pretty bad... for that same person to then imply that freedom of speech is conditional is absolutely horrifying.
(And yes, one has the Right to Freedom of Speech, but that doesn't necessarily mean there aren't consequences for being a dumb-ass. It's a very powerful weapon, so use it wisely. Else you give those that can the ability to take it away. Digital ID anyone?)
Further Reading
