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Austrian government seeks to eliminate internet anonymity, with severe penalties

derstandard.at

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Re: Austrian government seeks to eliminate internet anonymity, with severe penalties

#11

Post by neokantian »

Darmody wrote: post #5
TamDenholm wrote: post #4

If there was ever a time to be in the VPN business, its now.

It doesn't matter, actually. You as a user can use a VPN but the company based in Austria will have to implement this.

I recently run into this jewel: https://www.gate.io/page/contacts

Mail: PO Box 2804, Grand Cayman KY1-1112 , Cayman Island.

I don't think anybody involved with the site has ever been to Grand Cayman. Apparently, they process 10 BTC/USDT transactions per minute; and that is just one of the hundred trading pairs.

Who can claim jurisdiction over that site? Maybe Grand Cayman, but when push comes to shove, I suspect that they won't be interested either.

Re: Austrian government seeks to eliminate internet anonymity, with severe penalties

#12

Post by stdclass »

The funny thing is, they have a threshold of 100.000 users that must be registered at the site.

So a site like unzensuriert.at (like breitbart in the US) which is a right leaning / government favourable website will not fall under such a law and won't get penalties.

Re: Austrian government seeks to eliminate internet anonymity, with severe penalties

#13

Post by free101 »

starbugs wrote: post #8

Could anyone shed some light on which problem this is supposed to solve exactly and what triggered it in the first place in Austria right now? Have there been any issues caused by anonymous posts recently? Maybe I'm just living under a rock, but my feeling was that the main issues we're currently facing stem from political distortion caused by populism misusing platform mechanisms to spread misinformation. I don't se…

Traditional parties center/left center/right in Europe have run their respective countries into the ground.

Now they think that censoring information will save them so they can get back to the cozy system where state television is the source of truth.

Also, of course it is always good for a politician to show some sort of activity, no matter how silly.

Re: Austrian government seeks to eliminate internet anonymity, with severe penalties

#16

Post by szbalint »

starbugs wrote: post #8

Could anyone shed some light on which problem this is supposed to solve exactly and what triggered it in the first place in Austria right now? Have there been any issues caused by anonymous posts recently? Maybe I'm just living under a rock, but my feeling was that the main issues we're currently facing stem from political distortion caused by populism misusing platform mechanisms to spread misinformation. I don't se…

This comes from a government in which the junior coalition partner is the far-right FPÖ, an openly pro-Putin and authoritarian party.

This law is part of their campaign to browbeat the press and public sphere into submission and it is following attempts to rein the austrian public broadcaster (orf) in.

The proposed law is useless for any legitimate purpose, as anonymity was never a problem with hate speech or other things. People are willing to engage in hate speech, libel or just in overall awful things with their name attached without reservation already.

Re: Austrian government seeks to eliminate internet anonymity, with severe penalties

#17

Post by toyg »

neokantian wrote: post #11
Darmody wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter, actually. You as a user can use a VPN but the company based in Austria will have to implement this.

I recently run into this jewel: https://www.gate.io/page/contacts Mail: PO Box 2804, Grand Cayman KY1-1112 , Cayman Island. I don't think anybody involved with the site has ever been to Grand Cayman. Apparently, they process 10 BTC/USDT transactions per minute; and that is just one of the hundred trading pairs. Who can claim jurisdiction over that site? Maybe Grand Cayman, but when push comes to shove, I suspect that…

Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory. Technically, the installed Governor could shut anything down at his wish. In practice it’s unlikely to happen, because (like with many British constitutional matters...) both the locals and the UK have an interest into maintaining a degree of ambiguity in current arrangements.

This said, when the UK government is fully convinced that Caymans “should jump”, they eventually jump.

Re: Austrian government seeks to eliminate internet anonymity, with severe penalties

#18

Post by ptaipale »

stdclass wrote: post #12

The funny thing is, they have a threshold of 100.000 users that must be registered at the site. So a site like unzensuriert.at (like breitbart in the US) which is a right leaning / government favourable website will not fall under such a law and won't get penalties.

So, will a site maintainer simply remove the older accounts that have not accessed the site in a while, to keep number of accounts below 100 000?

Re: Austrian government seeks to eliminate internet anonymity, with severe penalties

#19

Post by arrrg »

free101 wrote: post #13
starbugs wrote: post #8

Could anyone shed some light on which problem this is supposed to solve exactly and what triggered it in the first place in Austria right now? Have there been any issues caused by anonymous posts recently? Maybe I'm just living under a rock, but my feeling was that the main issues we're currently facing stem from political distortion caused by populism misusing platform mechanisms to spread misinformation. I don't se…

Traditional parties center/left center/right in Europe have run their respective countries into the ground. Now they think that censoring information will save them so they can get back to the cozy system where state television is the source of truth. Also, of course it is always good for a politician to show some sort of activity, no matter how silly.

Describing the current government in Austria as center-right is a bit ridiculous (to say nothing of putting words like centrist or left anywhere near descriptions of that government). Austrian politics have been moving further and further to the right and the FPÖ (junior coalition partner) is a xenophobic far-right party with authoritarian streaks. I’m really not comfortable in describing a government where such a party participates as center-right.

Re: Austrian government seeks to eliminate internet anonymity, with severe penalties

#20

Post by ovi256 »

ptaipale wrote: post #18
stdclass wrote: post #12

The funny thing is, they have a threshold of 100.000 users that must be registered at the site. So a site like unzensuriert.at (like breitbart in the US) which is a right leaning / government favourable website will not fall under such a law and won't get penalties.

So, will a site maintainer simply remove the older accounts that have not accessed the site in a while, to keep number of accounts below 100 000?

Depends if the law says currently registered users or historically registered users.
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