They want to censor us

Taken from the website of the Senate of the Republic of Chile:

Website administrators could be held liable for offenses committed over the Internet …*

The bill, which was sent to the Constitution Committee for study, amends current legislation by establishing that “those who disseminate over the Internet content or expressions offensive to the honor and reputation of a person shall be civilly liable for the damages they cause”.

It likewise provides that in cases where the actual author of such an act cannot be determined, “liability shall fall on the administrators of the respective sites”.

However, it states that administrators “may be exempted by proving that they have reliably identified the author of the offenses and that he could not be located for reasons not attributable to them, or that they have diligently sought to prevent their dissemination”.

First question: what do the legislators understand by internet? Because sending an email is disseminating over the internet.

The other questions: why does the blame fall on the administrators? Where does that leave freedom of expression? With this they are forcing site administrators to become censors, and to censor themselves.

It is obvious that the most powerful will use this to silence criticism of their conduct in office, as Luis rightly points out on his blog.

That is why all of us who have blogs and forums feel threatened by this kind of gag law. They are an attack on our right to expression; let’s hope this bill doesn’t go anywhere.