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Austria draft law would require real names for internet comments
It's not just China that wants to reduce anonymity online. Austria's government has introduced a draft law that would require you to provide your real name and address to larger sites before commenting. You could still use a nickname in public, but authorities would have an easy way to find...
www.engadget.com
It’s not just China that wants to reduce anonymity online. Austria’s government has introduced a draft law that would require you to provide your real name and address to larger sites before commenting. You could still use a nickname in public, but authorities would have an easy way to find you if they believe you’re harassing users or otherwise violating the law. Companies that didn’t honor the law could face fines up to €500,000 (about $562,000) if they didn’t comply, and twice that with a repeat offense.
It would only affect sites with more than 100,000 registered users, bring in revenues above €500,000 per year or receive press subsidies larger than €50,000. There would also be exemptions for e-commerce sites as well as those that don’t earn money from either ads or the content itself.
If passed and cleared by the EU, the law would take effect in 2020.