An Illinois Sen. recently proposed the Internet Posting Removal Act, a bill that would prevent people from posting comments online anonymously. The senator quickly withdrew the bill after receiving much heat. And considering America’s facing bigger issues, it’s great to know democracy still kicks in when necessary.

While the bill is no longer on the table, it still brings up the question: how effective would the IPR Act really be?

The bill stated, “that a website administrator shall, upon request, remove any posted comments posted by an anonymous poster unless the anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name and home address are accurate.”

For starters, the Supreme Court has already said, “an author’s decision to remain anonymous . . . is an aspect of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.”

If a private website wants to require your identity, that’s within their rights. It’s another matter for the government to force you to connect your post to an identity.

Many websites already have a way to deal with cyber bullies and trolls. Some websites automatically hide comments with a low rating. Others let you report or flag a comment and a web site administrator can remove it. As someone who has joined a few message boards, I can testify that most sites make it clear that harassing other posters will not be tolerated. Not to mention, almost everyone on Facebook goes by his or her real name. Yet there are still plenty of nasty comments on there, even by people who post way more information than they should- such as their cell phone number.

And anyone who has been on Twitter knows despite people using pictures of themselves and at least part of their real names, Twitter is full of hateful and dumb comments.

I also find it interesting the bill didn’t require the accuser to provide any of their information. It seems unfair to allow one to accuse another of posting a nasty comment without any clarification.

What’s to stop someone from trolling a web administrator and just reporting any comments that accuser doesn’t like?

You’d think those witch trials from centuries ago would have educated us on how not to believe all the accusations we hear.

Let’s just hope the next person who tries to propose a bill of this matter will research before- hand.