Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Toys With Blockchain Digital IDs As A Way To End Harassment

Following polemics regarding what level of anonymity should be afforded to Internet users and at what point anonymity can become harmful, the Australian eSafety Commissioner has brought up the idea of using a blockchain-based digital ID on tech platforms – with the intent of affording anonymity unless Law Enforcement Officers request access.

Laws Around The World Are Out Of Sync

Although the European Union’s GDPR has gone a long way in restricting big tech companies from accessing unnecessary personal data within the EU, most countries outside the EU do not have nearly as stringent security regulations.

Julie Inman Grant – the eSafety Commissioner – touted blockchain as a possible solution to the question of affording internet anonymity to allow for free speech while preventing the spread of harmful ideas.

Commenting on the calls to crack down on social media giants following their ability to restrict anyone from accessing their platforms – sometimes without giving a clear reason – Mrs. Grant commented that the current approach social media platforms take towards moderating the content on their platform may be lackluster.

“There’s more that they can do in terms of their intellectual capability, their access to advanced technology, their vast financial resources, to come up with better systems to identify who’s on their platforms and violating their terms of service. And even beyond that, they need to do a better job at enforcing their own policies. They’re the only entities that can see all the signals, in terms of who might be being targeted at scale or whether an account setup was done simply for the purposes of trolling.”

She went on to say that current government regulations regarding online platforms may also need to be revisited – since at the time they were written, they allowed social media platforms a lot of leeway regarding the responsibility for the content they hosted.

Using blockchain to prevent abuse on social media is worth looking into – although it would also merit a lot of scrutiny, so as to not interfere with the rights of those who are not using anonymity as a cloak for nefarious purposes, but simply in order to keep as much of their data private as possible.

 The rise in users joining Telegram, Signal, Protonmail, and other communication services in recent months is proof that a great number of people (understandably) do not appreciate a too-big-to-fail entity peering over their shoulder looking for marketing opportunities – and the world of tech should adapt to that.