I disagree. Laws like this are outwardly hostile to the culture of innovation that the internet enables.
> This particular law may not be the best implementation but governments do need to take action to provide their citizens with a real public square online.
I disagree. Governments do not need to provide a public online discussion forum. Plenty of forums already exist. Reddit, Facebook, Hacker News, various phpBBs, deviant art, the chans, tumblr, mastodon, etc. The beauty of the internet as it stands is that if you feel like you don't have a place to speak your mind online, it's extremely easy, and in many cases, completely free to create your own blog or forum. Government should not be involved in public discourse in any role besides that of an observer. It is important for a government to hear the words of it's people, but it is ridiculous to suggest that a government should hold control of where people can have discussions or who can have discussions. This law is authoritarian at best, dystopian at worst.
> Excluding fake and paid users (without a declaration of who is paying them) from that space and protecting free speech in that space is essential to having a public policy discussion.
Protecting free speech is very important. However, this law does no such thing. In fact, it makes it easier to persecute people whose opinions you don't like. Requiring identification for the exercising of free speech is not free speech at all.
> Private corporations have not done this, and probably never will, so government is the only option left.
Regulation on how private companies handle their users is not inherently a bad thing. This law, however, is not only stifeling to free speech, it prevents smaller players from entering the game. It makes it hard for individuals to create their own small online communities by forcing them to navigate murky legal waters.
This law is bad. Everything about this law is bad. There is no single part of this law that is good for the internet.
I disagree. Laws like this are outwardly hostile to the culture of innovation that the internet enables.
> This particular law may not be the best implementation but governments do need to take action to provide their citizens with a real public square online.
I disagree. Governments do not need to provide a public online discussion forum. Plenty of forums already exist. Reddit, Facebook, Hacker News, various phpBBs, deviant art, the chans, tumblr, mastodon, etc. The beauty of the internet as it stands is that if you feel like you don't have a place to speak your mind online, it's extremely easy, and in many cases, completely free to create your own blog or forum. Government should not be involved in public discourse in any role besides that of an observer. It is important for a government to hear the words of it's people, but it is ridiculous to suggest that a government should hold control of where people can have discussions or who can have discussions. This law is authoritarian at best, dystopian at worst.
> Excluding fake and paid users (without a declaration of who is paying them) from that space and protecting free speech in that space is essential to having a public policy discussion.
Protecting free speech is very important. However, this law does no such thing. In fact, it makes it easier to persecute people whose opinions you don't like. Requiring identification for the exercising of free speech is not free speech at all.
> Private corporations have not done this, and probably never will, so government is the only option left.
Regulation on how private companies handle their users is not inherently a bad thing. This law, however, is not only stifeling to free speech, it prevents smaller players from entering the game. It makes it hard for individuals to create their own small online communities by forcing them to navigate murky legal waters.
This law is bad. Everything about this law is bad. There is no single part of this law that is good for the internet.