Next Ridiculous Idea To Stifle Online Speech: Irish Senator Says You Should Have To Pay To Post Online
from the where-do-they-find-these-people? dept
There's a lot of hand-wringing and moral panics around "anonymous commenters" online supposedly saying all sorts of nasty stuff. Of course, as we've discussed, some of the best comments in our own discussions seem to come from anonymous commenters. Yes, some leave some crazy comments, but anonymity by itself is not the problem so many people think it is. Still, an Irish Senator, Eamonn Coghlan, thinks that the way to deal with online commenters he doesn't like is to make them all pay to post any commentary online. Specifically, he apparently suggested that "the issue of anonymity" could be solved by "getting people to pay to post on social media websites or [to] register their passport numbers for IP addresses." Because I'm sure that will really help build out the internet, when everyone has to think about whether their latest communication to a family member is worth the money.Filed Under: anonymity, comments, eamonn coghlan, free speech, ireland, pay to comment
