The days of keyboard lions and potential criminals hiding behind fake names on social networks may be numbered. The minor milestone came after President Sergio Mattarella’s year-end speech.
The hypothesis of allowing access to the platforms only with certified registration together with an ID document was put forward by Alfredo Antoniozzi, Fratelli d’Italia’s deputy group leader in the Chamber.
Antoniozzi (Fdi): “We need a law that will punish haters”
Antoniozzi explains: “President Mattarella’s appeal to the many people who are victims of all kinds of insults on social media imposes on us a law that sanctions haters. From President Meloni to Liliana Segre, from Giorgio Napolitano to Fedez, just celebrities “Were you subjected to all kinds of rude insults and threats, but also normal people. Parliament should accept Mattarella’s invitation and, together with European legislation, demand access to social media with an ID card. We will involve our MPs in this regard. ECR” . In reality, the technologies used by the Postal Police in recent years allow people hiding behind fake profiles to be easily identified, especially on Facebook and Instagram. Investigators can usually trace the owner of the terminal and user from which the comments and messages came.
Laura Boldrini’s devotion
How to prevent the epidemic of online hate has been debated for years: on the one hand, there are those – especially on the left – who propose stricter rules, and on the other hand, there are those who argue that “freedom of expression” should always be guaranteed. However, it is a freedom of expression that cannot turn into criminal behavior outside the internet. The first person to personally make an effort to solve the problem was Laura Boldrini: The then Chamber President published the names of those who insulted her in 2016 on social networks and initiated a series of meetings with representatives of the platforms.
On May 2, 2017, Boldrini held an event in Montecitorio titled “#enoughhype, concrete commitments”, which also touched on the age-old topic of the spread of fake news on social media.
Steps taken and proposals submitted to the Parliament
Compared to that period, the policies of the main social networks have become much tougher and, above all, there has been more cooperation with the authorities. And even lies have slightly shorter legs, as increasingly widespread fact-checking by independent fact-checkers leads to blackout and removal of fake news or misleading content. From this perspective, the pandemic was a turning point, a moment when the spread of fake news seriously endangered public health. The only bill currently introduced in Parliament is the bill introduced by Senator Dario Parrini of the Democratic Party, which imposes “an obligation on the world’s leading publishers to obtain and protect the digital identity of users”. Antoniozzi’s position is crucial because he comes from the political spectrum that is often negatively affected by the proliferation of this phenomenon; Read the comments that appear every day under the posts of Matteo Salvini, Giorgia Meloni and the League’s leading representatives. Brothers of Italy. The internet could become a much cleaner place if the parties agree on new rules.
Source: Today IT
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
