Will Australia's new online troll laws affect steam users...

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

Australia is set to make user and provider of media services accountable
for online trolling...

the basics so far...

if you troll and our reported you will be requested to remove
said post and failure will lead to disclosure of details
by service provider to be pursued by law.. if provider fails
to do so they will be held responsible to Australian laws...

The term troll seems to be defaming and threatening people lives

The media release can be found here..
https://www.pm.gov.au/media/combatting-online-trolls-and-strengthening-defamation-laws

[Mailer]

Steam is not a social media giant though... so not really?
At least not in its primary purpose.

Also, I've got a hunch that Australia is seriously undermining the tools that are available for staying anonymous. I don't see how this is going to stay effective whatsoever. It has about as much eligibility as many of the climate promises this year (yet again).

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

In 2017 Steam had 2.2 million Australians
and probably a few more have joined in the last few years..

Austalia can get a bit funny with these things..
Steam is online and you can troll on Steam.. although Steam
do offer considerable moderation in the forums..

and it only takes one person to use a law to get momentum

[8ullfrog]

Goodbye Australia.

[[N]ebsun]

How on earth are they going to decide whether you are "trolling"... and what are they going to ban next, laughing ? Australia is the next North Korea

[Pscht]

Originally posted by Lord Sir Dr. Nebsun (PhD):

How on earth are they going to decide whether you are "trolling"...

Anti-troll task force. Positive side effect, it raises employment numbers.

[8ullfrog]

They've got several new internet overreach laws, but I think it's the one demanding money that will see anti-Australia walls on websites.

Specifically, they want Google to pay Murdoch for indexing his "news" websites. I believe it was something as humorous as a dollar an article.

[Tolkien Book Fan]

Seriously? The draft legislation won't be introduced to Parliament until next year, it specifies social media companies, which Valve is not ... and it is about changing the current system, where people or organisations are held responsible for their page's content, to making the social media companies responsible. So, if I understand correctly, you can currently be held responsible if someone goes on a racist rant on a Facebook page you run, but these laws would change it to make Facebook responsible. And the stated intention is to bring in a complaints process, not to force the companies to police content. It was described as bringing defamation laws to the internet.

Also, Morrison is required to hold an election next year, so his Government might not be around to introduce it anyway.

Between this and Off-topic, if it hasn't been deleted yet, this is a really unpleasant time to be an Australian on Steam.

[8ullfrog]

The problem is said "complaints department" would be under Australian law, which other nations might not find pleasing.

For instance, a website I will not mention repeatedly gets "removal requests" from New Zealand, the site operator's responses are unfit to print, but are never "yeah, sure".

Problem comes down, yet again, to who decides what speech is acceptable. It's a bit beyond calling someone a scruffy looking nerf herder.

[Satoru]

Note it’s only a draft that hasn’t been released yet. I think they haven’t thought this through. The DMCA basically allows trolls to doxx people. This kind of law allow the same thing. In effect it’s a doxxing mechanism for trolls themselves

Let’s Also ignore that Australia’s defamation laws are so bad they’re on par with the UK in terms of abuse. The US will likely do the same thing as with the UK and make a law that makes those lawsuits unenforceable in the US and the penalties uncollectable

[Obsidian]

This is nothing. Steam is an American company, not a world regulatory body.

If anything, these laws will only comply to Australia, if Steam still wants to continue it's services there.

This frustrates Aussies, not Steam and its other global members.

[DarkCrystalMethod]

Is Australia going to need its own isolated version of Steam like China has?

Also what if an Australian is visiting another country. Does this protect them even if they are "away"?

[Satoru]

Originally posted by DarkCrystalMethod:

Is Australia going to need its own isolated version of Steam like China has?

Also what if an Australian is visiting another country. Does this protect them even if they are "away"?

I’d be fairly easy to simply disable community services for Australians really