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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

#61

Post by xupybd »

macintux wrote: post #42
wallace_f wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That behaviour is not desirable in any space online. That’s what makes it so good here the moderation is pretty good. But is this a problem to be solved at the state level?

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

#62

Post by DyslexicAtheist »

szbalint wrote: post #16
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 t…

Putin even attended the wedding of Austrian foreign minister last year[1] and nobody was outraged, in fact Austrians on social media applauded it. Vienna is also crawling with Russian spooks.

The problem in Austria is that the Russians have started buying a lot of property there decades ago. Property prices in Kitzbühel have been going through the roof thanks to Russian oligarchs buying up everything. Russians love Austria (as much as Cyprus) because it's a great place to hide and launder money, see[2]:

Peter Pilz, a member of parliament from the opposition Greens party, said the Italian mafia, especially the Calabria-based ‘Ndrangheta, had years ago used Austria as a money-laundering centre, cleansing around 2 billion euros.

“Now it is mainly a matter of Russian money. A lot of banks must be afraid that the Russians will take their millions and flee to Asia,” he said.

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vladimir-putin-karin-kneissl-we...

[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-banksecrecy-austria-id...

see also: How Russia stands to profit from Austria’s new government: https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/10/how-russia-stands-to-p...

edit: parent is getting silently downvoted for stating facts. welcome to HN.

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

#63

Post by lazyjones »

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

If you're thinking about fake names, you'll get problems trying to register your SIM cards at the telecoms provider, they do ID checks now.

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

#64

Post by rmu09 »

citeguised wrote: post #46
looeee wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So if you are a criminal that needs disposable SIM cards you just pay some cash-strapped person to get a bunch of prepaid ones for you.

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

#65

Post by [deleted] »

lazyjones wrote: post #63
crunchiebones wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If you're thinking about fake names, you'll get problems trying to register your SIM cards at the telecoms provider, they do ID checks now.

[deleted]

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

#66

Post by caddytodaddy »

There was a point made where an opposing lawmaker said that foreign companies like Facebook would not bother to comply. Ha! They will all love to have your real name and address confirmed, they will be more than happy to oblige. It would make many things easier, and allow them to monetize you much better.

So strange, this seems to be the exact opposite of the trend in the USA where the public desire is moving towards requesting these companies to allow us to be anonymous. Just like...Europe? What’s going on in Austria?

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

#67

Post by lazyjones »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #51
bkolobara wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can buy sim cards on amazon from other EU countries.

So tell me how this will work. Will you swap SIM cards just to post anonymously sometimes and let the telecom providers (among others) find out what your other SIM cards are through your device ID? Or will you get a SIM card from another country to use exclusively and pay roaming costs / live with a worse data plan in Austria?

People apparently forget that telecoms providers cooperate with authorities, new legislation is planned for this too.

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

#68

Post by chmod775 »

lazyjones wrote: post #63
crunchiebones wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If you're thinking about fake names, you'll get problems trying to register your SIM cards at the telecoms provider, they do ID checks now.

There was a practice in Germany where people traded registered pre-paid SIM cards openly on a website created for that purpose - which was perfectly legal[1].

However they stopped when a court shot down the surveillance law that made people concerned in the first place[2].

If Austrians are even half as privacy-conscious as Germans, expect much of the same happening.

1: https://datenschmutz.net/anonym-kommunizieren-simkarten-taus...

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_retention#Germany

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

#70

Post by readittwice »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #58
tracked_citizen wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Censoring the internet is a popular topic among all center parties in Europe. For example "Hate-speech" censorship, where the end justifies the means, is popular among many left leaning parties. Isn't the proposal from an ÖVP minister? Does the ÖVP not qualify as center-right?

OeVP in the current incarnation is not in the center any more. Definitely right wing.

No, that's just your opinion. The OVP is center-right, the FPO is right wing/populistic.
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