Blogging code of conduct will infringe human rights law

A proposed code of conduct for bloggers, will infringe on human rights and privacy according to a civil liberties group.

The code of conduct has been written by Tim O'Reilly, the man who came up with the term Web 2.0, and Jimmy Wales, creator of Wikipedia.

It aims to stop harassment and crudity in language often found in blogs by giving bloggers the right delete items that could be deemed as libellous or false or any content they feel misrepresents another person, without facing allegations of censorship. Those who post such blogs could also be subject to legal pursuit.

Under the new proposal any anonymous comments could also be banned, something Dr. Yaman Akdeniz director at Cyber-Rights and Cyber- Liberties see’s as an “infringement upon freedom of expression.”

“Comments made on a blog or website should not be subject to identification,” he said.

“Anonymity is socially useful and has been a vital tool for the preservation of political speech and discourse through-out the history. Its value should [therefore] not be limited by any codes or laws.”

Under the proposals, implementing the changes would be up to each individual blogger - those intending to exclude abusive comments on their blogs would include a logo reading "Civility enforced", while uncensored blogs would bear an "Anything goes " label.

Something that Dr Akdeniz does not find acceptable, “Encouragement of responsible blogging should not turn into regulated blogging. Obviously, this is an early draft but such a code should encourage more speech rather than limit behaviour,” he said.

However, Struan Robertson technology lawyer at Pinsent Masons disagreed, “Because this is a code of practice and cannot be enforced the most it will do is bring terms and conditions into the public domain,” he told Computeractive.

“We have been advising people who set up blogs to create such terms and conditions for a while now but many have steered away through fear of scaring off their customers.”

He also reassured the public that this code alone wouldn’t lead to an infringement of freedom of speech.

“There is already a limitation on freedom of speech which falls under the Law of Deformation act and we have already seen cases of bloggers being sued under this for making disparaging comments about someone else over the internet.”

“Also if people are making sincere death threats it doesn’t matter what medium they are using they can still get into trouble with the law if the subject is picked up upon,” he said.

The draft version of the code is available for open comment before the creators make it final in a few weeks time.