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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

#41

Post by wallace_f »

jeena wrote: post #9

"Results show that in the context of online firestorms, non-anonymous individuals are more aggressive compared to anonymous individuals" https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

Maybe I am wrong. I've observed usually the most aggressive to be kind of "knight of the status quo." They are opportunists seeking status and notoriety, whether consciously or not. They do this by being opportunists and attacking those who offered controversial opinions which garnered feelings of negativity. The knights latch onto that negativity as their opportunity for an assault. And you'll find they have put little genuine interest into the actual issue at hand, they're more interested in being a sort of "knight of the groupthink." So I think it is not really surprising to find users with their real names associated with conformity and status-seeking.

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

#42

Post by macintux »

wallace_f wrote: post #41
jeena wrote: post #9

"Results show that in the context of online firestorms, non-anonymous individuals are more aggressive compared to anonymous individuals" https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

Maybe I am wrong. I've observed usually the most aggressive to be kind of "knight of the status quo." They are opportunists seeking status and notoriety, whether consciously or not. They do this by being opportunists and attacking those who offered controversial opinions which garnered feelings of negativity. The knights latch onto that negativity as their opportunity for an assault. And you'll find they have put lit…

Typically trolls don’t have to sound aggressive. They can wander in, throw a grenade into a discussion, and then act innocent of the carnage.

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

#43

Post by crunchiebones »

Findus23 wrote: post #25

In case anyone wants to know how this should work, this is the explanation by the minister: There are "technical possibilities where software can run on the backend that can immediately identify: Does the registered mobile phone number match the name and address or not?" - derstandard.at/2000101678440/Minister-Bluemels-Ominous-De-Anonymization-Software (from https://derstandard.at/2000101678440/Minister-Bluemels-Omin…

it won't stop people getting multiple sim cards and registering those under different names

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

#44

Post by lazyjones »

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.

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

It's 100.000 users OR revenue of €500.000 OR being media with press subsidies of €50.000+ OR being a service partner providing an online service for such companies.

That the law was made in such a way for "unzensuriert.at" ist just nonsense propaganda, there are plenty of left-leaning or straight opposition blogs and forums that are exempt as well (e.g. kontrast.at, run by the SPÖ). It's a law targeted at online forums by newspapers and FB/Google/Twitter. Also, unzensuriert.at is not "right leaning" it's pretty far right and not very friendly to the conservative ÖVP, i.e. the larger part of the government.

Exempt are also (apparently) forums on e-commerce websites and reviews/comments, support forums.

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

#45

Post by looeee »

crunchiebones wrote: post #43
Findus23 wrote: post #25

In case anyone wants to know how this should work, this is the explanation by the minister: There are "technical possibilities where software can run on the backend that can immediately identify: Does the registered mobile phone number match the name and address or not?" - derstandard.at/2000101678440/Minister-Bluemels-Ominous-De-Anonymization-Software (from https://derstandard.at/2000101678440/Minister-Bluemels-Omin…

it won't stop people getting multiple sim cards and registering those under different names

There's quite a few countries where you need to show a passport to register a sim card. Not sure if Austria is one.

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

#46

Post by citeguised »

looeee wrote: post #45
crunchiebones wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it won't stop people getting multiple sim cards and registering those under different names

There's quite a few countries where you need to show a passport to register a sim card. Not sure if Austria is one.

In Austria and Germany you can't get any SIM without ID as of now.

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

#47

Post by the_duke »

crunchiebones wrote: post #43
Findus23 wrote: post #25

In case anyone wants to know how this should work, this is the explanation by the minister: There are "technical possibilities where software can run on the backend that can immediately identify: Does the registered mobile phone number match the name and address or not?" - derstandard.at/2000101678440/Minister-Bluemels-Ominous-De-Anonymization-Software (from https://derstandard.at/2000101678440/Minister-Bluemels-Omin…

it won't stop people getting multiple sim cards and registering those under different names

Since late year, SIM cards require registration with your real name (in Austria).

Of course you could still get your hands on one registered to another name, but it's no longer trivial to get an anonymous card here.

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

#48

Post by bkolobara »

crunchiebones wrote: post #43
Findus23 wrote: post #25

In case anyone wants to know how this should work, this is the explanation by the minister: There are "technical possibilities where software can run on the backend that can immediately identify: Does the registered mobile phone number match the name and address or not?" - derstandard.at/2000101678440/Minister-Bluemels-Ominous-De-Anonymization-Software (from https://derstandard.at/2000101678440/Minister-Bluemels-Omin…

it won't stop people getting multiple sim cards and registering those under different names

To get a sim card (even prepaid) in Austria you need to provide a valid ID/passport. If it's not an Austrian/German/Swiss ID you will need to go in person to activate your sim card. This would make it really difficult for someone to manage a few accounts.

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

#49

Post by superwayne »

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?

Interestingly, the current draft of the bill says that the site owner has to delete accounts which were inactive for a year.

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

#50

Post by GordonS »

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…

If Austria is anything like the UK, I imagine it's a move designed largely to garner votes from a particular segment of the population who have been led to believe there's a terrorist round every corner, and "it's all to keep them safe".
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