South Australian Government Censors Internet With New Election Law

Could this law eventually make its way to America by the 2012 election?:

• Anonymous comments banned for SA election
• Michael Atkinson says speech still free
• Media says censorship is ‘draconian’

SOUTH Australia has become one of the few states in the world to censor the internet.

The new law, which came into force on January 6, requires anyone making an online comment about next month’s state election to publish their real name and postcode.

The law will affect anyone posting a comment on an election story on The Advertiser‘s AdelaideNow website, as well as other Australian news sites.

It could also apply to election comment made on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The law, which was pushed through last year as part of a raft of amendments to the Electoral Act and supported by the Liberal Party, also requires media organisations to keep a person’s real name and full address on file for six months, and they face fines of $5000 if they do not hand over this information to the Electoral Commissioner.  [AdelaideNow]

I want to see how the government plans on censoring Facebook and Twitter?  Apparently the South Australian premier is losing in the polls and is getting bashed on the Internet and in response created this law.  For those that don’t know, think of Adelaide which is the capitol of South Australia as the San Francisco of Australia.  It is a very nice town, but filled with liberals.