According to Kentucky Action News:

Kentucky lawmaker wants to make anonymous internet posting illegal…. If the bill becomes law, the website operator would have to pay if someone was allowed to post anonymously on their site. The fine would be five-hundred dollars for a first offense and one-thousand dollars for each offense after that.

First of all, I’m ok with anonymous posters as long as it’s not malicious. Secondly, this bill is ridiculous in every aspect and will probably never go into effect. How would they even enforce this? It’s just like trying to enforce age restrictions on accessing certain websites — almost impossible. And how would they be able to tell if a poster uses their real name? As such, there’s no difference between posting anonymously and posting incognito. Some blogs are authored completely anonymously (ie. the Annoyed Librarian) and are meant to be enjoyed that way.

I don’t think this Kentucky Representative has any idea what the internet is. I understand that he’s just trying to curb online bullying but it’s quite a utopian goal, wouldn’t you say? Might as well shield our kids from the internet until they’re 19.

Submitted by: RayAna Park, Web Developer
on March 10, 2008 - 1:38 pm

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