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State Lawmaker Wants To Ban Anonymous Posting Online
bfwebster writes "According to a local news article from last week, Kentucky state lawmaker Tim Couch wants to ban anonymous posting on the internet in order to 'cut down on online bullying', which he says has been 'a particular problem in eastern Kentucky.' His bill would require posters to register with their real names and e-mail addresses under threat of fines. Looks like another battle in the right for anonymous free speech."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't SCOTUS already rule that anonymous speech is protected?
Ah yes, here we go: http://www.eff.org/issues/anonymity
Yet another law just waiting to be struck down, and it took five seconds on Google to demonstrate why.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I'm willing to bet that the most appropriate title would be the "Tim Couch got his feeling hurt by an online troll Bill".
He claims that this is to prevent cyber-bullying (I hate that term) in our schools, but he probably wants to get revenge on the owner of kyvotes.org. It's a website that lists all the bills being debated in the legislature, and gives people the ability to comment on those bills. Considering the extreme ignorance of almost all of our legislators, they get ripped pretty badly. Here's the discussion for this bill: http://www.kentuckyvotes.org/2008-HB-775