Internet trolls targeted in new bill to tackle defamation online (UK)

[alp227]

Source: UK Press Association

Major reforms of the libel laws will see a duty placed on internet service providers to try to identify internet trolls without victims needing to resort to costly legal action.

Websites will also be given greater protection from being sued if they help to identify those posting defamatory messages, under government plans.

The defamation bill, which will be debated in the Commons on Tuesday, will also see would-be claimants having to show they have suffered serious harm to their reputations, or are likely to do so, before they can take a defamation case forward.

The justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, said: "As the law stands, individuals can be the subject of scurrilous rumour and allegation on the web with little meaningful remedy against the person responsible...

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/jun/12/internet-trolls-bill-defamation-online

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Fortunately, the US has a 1st amendment to guard against hyper-criminalization of society like European hate speech laws and the wide reaching British libel laws.

[boppers]

1. 7 proxies.

It's a useless law, and useless idea.

[T_i_B]

2. Basically yes

Our government is fond of this sort of nonsense, and the previous government was to boot.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. I think it sounds a bit better than the current situation

At the moment, the knee-jerk reaction of ISPs (or those running websites with comments/members) is just to take something down at the first hint of legal involvement. This sounds as if it's going to allow them to say "here's the person who wrote it - sort it out with them". And this sounds better too:

The bill will also replace the common law defences of justification and honest comment with new statutory defences of truth and honest opinion.

The so-called Reynolds defence of responsible journalism published in the public interest also gets statutory recognition as responsible publication on a matter of public interest.

[Nye Bevan]

4. What happens when British people say mean things about other British people on a US-based website?