Politics & Government

Some Seek Ban of Anonymous Online Comments

The New York State Assembly has identical bills that would 'amend the civil rights law' in order to protect 'a person's right to know who is behind an anonymous internet posting,' Time Techland reports.

Lawmakers in the state of New York are considering whether to ban anonymous online comments on "social networks, blogs forums, message boards or any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages," Time Techland reported Friday.

The New York State Assembly has two identical bills - S.6779 and A.8688 - that would "amend the civil rights law" in order to protect "a person's right to know who is behind an anonymous internet posting," according to Time Techland.

"The bill would require a web administrator to 'upon request remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate,'" according to Time Techland.

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Wired noticed the bills on Tuesday and immediately pointed out the disparity between the legislation’s tenets and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which stipulates:

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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

While the First Amendment doesn’t specify anonymous speech, the Electronic Frontier Foundations notes that the U.S. Supreme Court "has ruled repeatedly that the right to anonymous free speech is protected by the First Amendment."


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