Basically, if you cause "emotional distress" on an anonymous forum in the UK, you can have your identity revealed for prosecution.
In theory, if XiC (or some other Brit) now says a racist thing on B8, GameFAQs can turn him over to the authorities where he will be charged with a hate crime.
Please don't tell me anybody can actually defend this crap
-- SephirothG, channeling awesomeness from Mershiness. The Resurrection
I'm not defending it, it's stupid. However, this is a planned bill. It's not law yet and hopefully won't be. You guys had SOPA and all that crap proposed and it didn't pass, I doubt this will either for the same reasons.
Also, Arizona has already passed a law that makes trolling illegal. So, go you guys.
That said it seems like it's more about protecting people from the likes of Anonymous as opposed to "omg you can't say things on gamefaqs anymore".
And yes that totally is ~Damage Control~, but by all accounts it seems like correct damage control. There's plenty of laws out there that are idiotic if you enforce them to their fullest capability - just because a law says something COULD happen, doesn't mean it necessarily will.