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 The law will be repealed retrospectively after the election.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?
