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Finally, we might actually be able to do something about the scourge of internet trolls. At least one person is taking the fight to them, but the government wants to help now too. It’s putting powers in place to unmask and prosecute trolling fiends.
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke is proposing new legislation that tacks onto the Defamation bill, which would force websites into give up the IP addresses of trolling users without having to spend time going to the High Court. The new powers would also give website publishers a defence against defamation. At the moment, basically, websites are liable for defamatory content, even if the trolling was done by one of their users and not a company employee. Ken Clarke said:
“Our proposed approach will mean that website operators have a defence against libel as long as they identify the authors of allegedly defamatory material when requested to do so by a complainant.”
There are, of course, privacy concerns over that kind of power, plus there’s the potential for abuse as a censorship tool. Apparently the government is committed to getting “the detail right” to avoid that kind of thing, but considering what a mess recent internet-targeted legislation has been, I don’t hold up much hope. Still, any weapon that the public can use against malicious internet trolls is a step in the right direction. Maybe trolling will eventually become a thing of the past, in Britain at least — cross your fingers for that one. [BBC]
Image credit: Troll from Shutterstock
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As everyone mentions with piracy: IP ADDRESSES DO NOT IDENTIFY A USER! *RAGE*
I know, but once you have an IP address you can go to the ISP for more, even if it doesn’t always identify the actual user, it’s better than nothing for this kind of thing.
“Dear ISP,
We’ve noticed the following IP address was used to call someone ‘a complete fucknuckle who deserves to fall balls first onto a cactus’ on facebook at the following time and date. Can you please let us know which of your users was allocated that IP address at that time, and can you also ask your technicians to remote into their router and see what wifi security they currently have employed.
Many thanks,
The Plod”
If that logic worked then you could do the same for downloads:
“Dear ISP,
We’ve noticed the following IP address was used to illegally download “Hot PRONZ 59″ at this time and date. Can you please let us know which of your users was allocated that IP address at that time, and can you also ask your technicians to remote into their router and see what wifi security they currently have employed.
Many thanks,
The Plod”
However, this isn’t the case. A Florida judge ruled that IPs can’t even identify the state, let alone the person.
To go further than this, one judge points out “The assumption that the person who pays for Internet access at a given location is the same individual who allegedly downloaded a single sexually explicit film is tenuous, and one that has grown more so over time. An IP address provides only the location at which one of any number of computer devices may be deployed”
And what about libraries? Public WiFi? Large work places without proper monitoring? IPs aren’t fingerprints. They aren’t even identifying marks. They’re a head gesture in a certain direction.
Isn’t a MAC address more personal? I suppose it’s harder to find out what an individual address is though just through the internet.
What a judge says in Florida has no bearing on UK law.
The ISPs reveal the main account holder for that IP address at the time the complaint was made, along with the home address of the account holder. For example, a quick trace of my IP puts my current location as Durham, which is over 80 miles away. However, my ISP knows that current IP is assigned to me, and they know my home address for billing purposes and sending unwanted flyers. Not only that, they have to keep assigned IP addresses on record for a number of months just in case the police ever need to see them.
Now say I lived with 3 other people, all connected to the same router, and one of them was trolling away merrily using a fake youtube/facebook/whatever account. A complaint is made, the police contact the ISP who now reveal my home address. They park up outside, pull out a smartphone and look for any open wifi nearby. There is none. They now knock on the door and serve a warrant to search the premises for any devices that can be used to connect to the internet. There’s now 4 of us arrested for defamation and various other related charges. Eventually they’re going to figure out which one of the 4 of us did it.
Now how many trolls purposely seek out public wifi hotspots, internet cafes? It’d be safe to assume most of them do it from home under the false sense of anonymity that the internet provides. “Large work places without proper monitoring” suddenly become large work places with proper monitoring once the police start asking questions, so likewise they’ll be caught. Most libraries are now fitted with CCTV, so there’s a chance they can match timestamps on the video with the posted comments.
The IP reveals the ISP, who reveals the account holder, which reveals the address of said account, and that’s enough for the police to start their enquiries.
You are confusing US law and UK law.
It is one letter and quite easy to miss, but they are separate entities.
If someone is murdered in America, would it still be murder in the UK? We have little case law on ISP identification, the US have a lot more, so it’s easier to point out what US judges have said than UK judges. I’m not saying it’s legally binding here, but it’s not a bad place to look.
Moreover, with the recent surge in articles on how to protect your IP (free proxies, TOR, and VPN), if you want to troll, it’s as easy as typing in a web address.
Plus, deformation is civil, not criminal. That means it has to be instigated in a civil lawsuit, not by the police. This means that you’re in trouble if your trusted source said X about Y important person, but not so much if you call the regular Joe a defamatory name.
And no, calling someone a d*ck-face tw*t isn’t defamation. Defamation is described as having your public opinion lowered in the eyes of “right thinking men.” It’s, for example, a news paper publishing your paedophile, when you’re not (or when hey can’t prove beyond reasonable doubt that you are). (NB: When doing journalism training, you do a LOT on the deformation act.)
So to sum up: IP addresses have historically been described as an inaccurate method of tracking, nearly everyone knows of free proxies, TOR, or VPNs, and trolling is not deformation (even by the new media definition that’s synonymous with hardcore harassment). Pointless litigation is pointless.
Download Tor. Open browser. Troll.
It’s a nice idea, don’t get me wrong, I hate trolls, but the fact that it could so easily dissolve into ‘Mommy the badman made me feel bad! and all i did was say nasty things to him for a week! waaaaa!’ makes me worry.
The parents should be able to give the kid a clip round the ear for being an idiot.
I was actually talking about an adult moaning to the nanny state. Having said that, there’s gonna be one parent out there in our woefully under-educated country who’ll take a personal affront at their little angel being called anything other than a prodigy by the internet community.
I agree.
I present Exhibit A
http://kotaku.com/5743970/autistic-boy-branded-a-cheater-by-xbox-live
His mum wasn’t too happy that her kid was branded a cheater on XBL, she was saying that he played too good so they mis-labelled him as a cheater. Microsoft had to show her the evidence they had to get her to stop her campaign.
An IP address is not better than nothing – it is a justice secretary that (as usual) does not understand the internet. Most serious trolls just go to a hotspot or coffee shop and log on where their IP address doesn’t matter.
People need the ability to have slander removed from sites and web pages but tracking an IP is utterly useless.
Oh nos!
Ahh the British government flailing around as usual to prevent people saying mean words across the internet.