The South Australian Government recently passed new laws requiring all citizens to post personally identifying information when discussing the State Elections. The information—your full name, and your postcode—will be required whether you post to the AdelaideNow website, your own blog, your Facebook, or your Twitter account.
South Australia used to be a pioneer of free speech, and was one of the first states to implement the secret ballot. Not so any more—this is an obvious limitation upon free speech. In fact, anything that places limits on what somebody can say, and how they can say it, is a form of censorship.
Censorship aside, this is also a big online safety concern. Posting any information which will allow a stranger to find your phone number and your place of residence (and a name and postcode would) is dangerous. This information can lead to problems such as identity theft and fraud, stalking, and in the case of political speech may even place South Australians at risk of physical attacks.
All our kids know this: all South Australian schoolchildren are warned not to post such information online to avoid predators, stalkers, and bullies. Now it is the law that we all place ourselves at risk?
EDIT: For fun, some other links on the Internet:
- Gizmodo: Who Wants Freedom? If You’re South Australian, You Can Forget About It…
- Lifehacker: SA Internet Forum Rules are Chilling, Unworkable
- Mumbrella: Adelaide Advertiser in face off with South Australian Government over online comment censorship
- ZDnet: South Australia bans anonymous online commentary
- EFA: SA Electoral amendments and anonymity online
- IT News: SA publishes “unworkable” censorship law
- Gamers4Croydon: SA Government attacks free speech
- and I’m not linking to AdelaideNow because the articles at the URIs keep changing…
And articles by friends of mine who are awesome
- Rubénerd: South Aussie election law hurts my brain
- Zombie Plan: South Australian election is Poop (see awesome political cartoon)
UPDATE: 11:07PM. AdelaideNow is reporting that Michael Atkinson has is repealing the laws. The announcement from the Attorney-General was made at 10PM in response to overwhelming criticism from the blogosphere and comments on AdelaideNow. The law will be repealed retrospectively after the election. Wait? Does that mean the next government can choose not to repeal it?
Great blog post, Taryn. I can not believe how these politicians can fit their heads so far up their… oh, better keep it clean.
Comment by Gaelyne / Flitterbyg — February 2, 2010 @ 3:32 pm
[...] Online Safety and the South Australian election speech laws « Taryn Hicks: Semi-Regular Though… says: 2010.02.02 at 15:18 [...]
Pingback by Rubénerd Blog / South Aussie election law hurts my brain — February 2, 2010 @ 4:52 pm
[...] the website we pay for, I will link to two of the more intelligent local bloggers – Rubenerd and Tarale (the latter of which includes links to other related posts. It’s like a little pyramid of [...]
Pingback by South Australian Election is Poop. : ZombieSkittles — February 2, 2010 @ 5:52 pm
Astonishing that this was passed with little or no comment or discussion. Supported by the Liberals, so no issue with that. Very chilling.
Comment by Colin Campbell — February 2, 2010 @ 7:41 pm
Thank you for the link Scat Man
Comment by Ruben — February 2, 2010 @ 9:41 pm
Colin: we didn’t get much comment with the movie censorship either. Just all of a sudden, there’s a “restricted” section and I get to buy Stanley Kubrick films in brown paper bags.
Our Government has done a terrible job of public consultation lately—because it seems there’s a lot they don’t want us to know. Scary.
Comment by Taryn — February 2, 2010 @ 9:56 pm
As of 10PM tonight, Michael Atkinson announced that the laws will be repealed. The announcement was made a little after 11PM on the AdelaideNow website.
Comment by Taryn — February 2, 2010 @ 10:18 pm
Great post Taryn, I don’t know much about politics and the government but they really are screwing things up lately.
Comment by Stacey — February 2, 2010 @ 10:45 pm
i like the concept of openness and transparency because it seems that’s where the internet is headed anyways but i think it should definitely be optional, like they should have a system where people who use their real name etc just get more credibility than someone who is a random annonymous person, reward positive behaviours etc cheers, locspoc
Comment by adelaide dancing — February 3, 2010 @ 8:30 am
The thing is, you can be open without giving away information that puts you at risk.
Full name and postcode is enough information to be able to find people’s homes via the White Pages, and their phone numbers. Once you know that much, it’s a lot easier to find more, too. This is the kind of information that identity thieves love, but it also places people at risk of physical harm.
There are ways to be credible online without giving away enough information for someone to come and beat your head in.
Comment by Taryn — February 3, 2010 @ 8:46 am