Power to the People
A law that was passed on January 6, 2010 in South Australia has garnered huge public backlash. The law stated that anyone who wanted to post a comment online with a political message during an election would be required to also post their full name and address or face a fine of up to AUS$1,250. The law also only targeted bloggers and comment posts; it excluded journals such as newspapers and magazines. This caused a huge public outrage that eventually caused the politicians who passed the bill to admit defeat and say that they would move to revoke the law after the election.
While pundits to remove this law may say that it infringes on their free speech I am not so sure it does, though I think that this law does overstep the bounds of government and should not be legal. But by looking from the other side if people are threatening politicians or in some other way violating speech laws in Australia then this law would make sense to a point. Though the law seams redundant, if some one posts something unlawful and does not put their name and address then the government will have to go to the ISP to find out who they are, exactly what they would have to do if this law was not in effect. So my thoughts are adhere to the people’s demands, as it seems they are, and remove this law that really prevents nothing from being said only invoking a fine if it is said without a name.