Australia's move to ban anonymous handles 'ineffectual', will not curb abuse: Twitter

Every attempt by the Australian government to crack down on anonymous accounts on Twitter has been dismissed by the social media behemoth as ineffectual and incapable of reducing the amount of abuse on the network. 

On Friday, November 5, Kara Hinesley, Twitter's public policy director in Australia and New Zealand, told a panel on online anonymity that banning anonymous accounts would impede expression for vulnerable people who need to stay anonymous online. She also stated that it would be ineffectual and would not lessen the level of social media abuse, The Guardian reported.

According to the media agency, Hinesley, speaking at a Twitter-hosted event, cited a 2004 Korean law that was repealed in 2012 that mandated top Korean websites to gather ID information for users posting on their websites in an effort to curb election misinformation and, later, cyberbullying online. When it was reversed, the court determined that there was insufficient evidence to show that the policy had resulted in a decrease in hostile comments, defamation, or online bullying. Hinesley added that it also highlighted the risks of corporations being compelled to maintain user identity information.

The Guardian qutoed Hinesley as saying, "What did in fact happen was there was a breach of 35 million South Koreans’ national identification numbers that was stolen. So this law was actually repealed in 2012. And was something that was found and to chip away and erode at those freedoms."

According to Hinesley, online anonymity should not be confused with online abuse and harassment. She cited a study released by Twitter in August concerning racial abuse directed at England players during the Euro 2020 final. According to her, 99% of the accounts suspended for more than 1,600 abusive tweets were not anonymous, according to the company's study.

PM Morrison calls social media 'coward's palace'

Last month, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had slammed social media sites, terming those as a "coward's palace" and warned tighter regulation of the corporations in response. He claimed that social media has become a coward's castle where individuals can go on and not say who they are, wreck people's lives, and say the most nasty and disgusting things to people with impunity.

According to The Guardian, he further remarked, "Now that’s not a free country where that happens. That’s not right. They should have to identify who they are and you know, the companies, if they’re not going to say who they are, well, they’re not a platform anymore. They’re a publisher."

Through the Online Safety Act, the government has also given the e-safety commissioner the authority to compel social media companies to send over the personal information of those who the commissioner claims are engaging in online bullying. These additional abilities will take effect at the beginning of 2022.

(With inputs from agencies, Image: Unsplash)