The Austrian government wants to eliminate anonymity on the internet, reported Der Standard. According to the government's new draft law on "Diligence and Responsibility on the Web", users of online forums in Austria will have to provide operators with their true identities or risk fines that could run into millions.
Prior to submitting a comment on the internet, users will have to provide their first name, last name and address to platform operators. In the event of an investigation, operators would then have to supply that information to government agencies or, in some cases, to private individuals in cases of insult or defamation. Public posts could still appear under a pseudonym.
According to Media Minister Gernot Blumel, of the centre-right Austrian People's Party (OVP), the legal requirements that are valid in the analogue world must also be valid in the digital world. The so-called "digital anonymity ban" plan calls for the law to go into force in 2020. The law would apply to platforms that either have more than 100,000 registered users, earn more than EUR 500,000 in annual revenues, or receive government press subsidies of more than EUR 50,000.
According to the draft law, the platforms would also have a responsibility for determining if the ID information provided by users is accurate. How they choose to do so is left up to the platforms themselves, though the annotation to the draft law mentions the use of dual factor authentication by way of the user's mobile number.
Since the beginning of the year, all SIM cards in Austria have had to be registered with a photo ID. In addition, web platforms would be required to appoint a liaison in Austria who would be responsible for making information about platform users available if this becomes necessary. If this person does not ensure that the regulation is followed, he or she could be punished with a fine of up to EUR 100,000.
The law provides for significant monetary penalties if platforms do not conform to the law. Depending on the severity of the violation, fines could reach as high as EUR 500,000 and could rise to EUR 1 million if the offence recurs. The Austrian Communications Authority - KommAustria - would be responsible for enforcement of the law, which also applies to forums such as the one operated by Der Standard.
E-commerce platforms are exempt, as are platforms that earn no revenues either from their content or from advertising. The exemption, however, extends to sites that have often been criticised in the past for allowing hate posts to remain online, such as the platform unzensuriert.at, which is linked to the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), the right-wing populist party that is the OVP's junior coalition partner in the current government. Blumel justified the exemption by saying it was designed to reduce the potential burden on smaller platforms and start-ups that likely would be unable to afford compliance.
In an interview with Der Standard, IT lawyer Markus Dorfler expressed criticism of the fact that in the annotation attached to the law, it is frequently noted that the same principles that apply to the real world must also apply to the digital world. In the real world, there is no demand to see an ID as a precautionary measure, he said. He views the law as a step toward the establishment of an infrastructure of censorship.
Dorfler also believes it unlikely that most foreign social media platforms will appoint a liaison in Austria, and he wonders how the law will be applied to them. He cites Facebook as an example, but also unknown platforms situated in places such as Asia. Technology law expert Nikolaus Forgo agreed with this assessment.
According to Dorfler, the law will penalise the wrong platforms anyway, and not platforms that disseminate hate and animosity. Sites like Alpen-Donau.info, a neo-Nazi site that has since been discontinued, would simply relocate outside the country, he said. It is also unclear, he added, whether the law is consistent with the 2016 ruling by the European Court of Justice on data retention, as it represents an incursion on the right to privacy and the protection of personal data.
Forgo said that the draft law is a frontal attack on Der Standard and the limited number of similar Austrian websites with discussion forums. This path will not even come close to achieving the goal of internet discipline. Instead, Forgo said, the law will lead to high costs, e. g. to pay the liaison officer, who must be available at all times, which would damage Austria's "already weak" digital infrastructure.
There are also data protection concerns to be considered, such as the fact that platform operators would suddenly be in possession of a huge amount of data that they do not really want. In addition, it represents a huge hurdle for new forums to clear. A forum such as the one for anonymous alcoholics could no longer successfully operate.
As posts allow for a range of possible interpretations, the government would be able to request information in a wide variety of cases. There is a potential here for a gigantic surveillance machinery for monitoring political discourse in Austria, Forgo said.
Another technology law expert, Lukas Feiler from the law firm Baker McKenzie, furthermore believes that the draft law is a violation of the EU e-commerce directive. Feiler recently told to Der Standard that service providers on the web only have to obey the laws of the country in which they are situated. As such, Austria may not impose laws that are stricter than those in an operator's country of origin.
The government is aware of the potential problem and wrote in the annotation to the law that the European Commission would have to be notified of the law in advance, to give the EU executive a chance to examine the text. In certain situations, the annotation notes, the Commission allows exceptions – such as when the measure in question is necessary to maintain public order. Feiler said that such exceptions are only applicable in cases of punishable offences and not to civil suits for things like defamation, a transgression that is explicitly mentioned in the draft law.
Even if the law was only applied to punishable offences, the draft law still would not be permissible because exceptions can only be made on a case-by-case basis, focused on a single platform operator with a specific justification. Such a platform is not allowed in Austria anyway.
The e-commerce directive protects the freedom to provide services for online platforms, Feiler said. He believes that the Commission would not allow the Austrian government's draft law, because of existing EU law. Initially, the Austrian government had intended to push through a package of regulations modelled on the German Network Enforcement Act, but those plans were apparently abandoned during the development stage.
The German law requires platform operators to delete postings within an extremely short amount of time. The law was granted an exception – it calls for social networks to have an officer in Germany. That, though, was allowed because the Network Enforcement Act is a reactive tool to address violations after they occur, in contrast to the Austrian draft law which allows proactive, preventative measures.
The draft law is subject to criticism from the opposition and web activists. Digital rights activists at Epicenter Works refer to the law as a "compulsory digital ID" and see it as a "massive overreach on data protection". The legitimate goal of curtailing hate on the web cannot go hand in hand with the erosion of fundamental rights, the organisation says.
Criticism also came from former Green Party politician Sigi Maurer, whose fight against sexist posts was cited by the government as proof that the law was needed. She wrote in a tweet that the government had abused her case to propose this censorship law.
The draft law has also been criticised by Mario Lindner, diversity spokesman for the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO), Claudia Gamon, the lead candidate in the upcoming European elections for the NEOS party, Stephanie Cox from the environmental party Jetzt, and the association Internet Service Providers Austria (ISPA).
