I am temporarily turning on comment moderation on this site. You can still leave a comment, but it won’t be posted until after 7pm Saturday NZDT (1AM Saturday EST). I’m doing this to comply with New Zealand election law, which, apparently, mandates that I turn off comments (even though the law was enacted in 1993…). I will re-enable comments after the New Zealand polls have closed, and will update this post to confirm that as happened.
Update 26/11/11: Now that the polls have closed, comments are once again unmoderated, so they will post immediately (unless you’re a first-time commenter, in which case it will still need to be approved). Thank you for your patience.
Why was that law introdocied, what what precisely does it state?
It’s part of New Zealand’s election law, which also contains rules for voter registration, candidate selection, etc., basically everything to do with elections in New Zealand. It says that there can be no advertising or other behaviour that may influence a person to vote a particular way, or to not vote at all, on Election Day (midnight to the following 7pm).
This means there can be no campaigning after midnight, all election hoardings must be down by midnight, no newspaper/TV/radio ads after midnight, and now, rules about the Internet.
So, it’s nothing new, but they have made bloggers and users of social media more aware of how the law applies to them.