A Gift of Fire
Third edition
Sara Baase
Chapter 3: Freedom of Speech
Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
What We Will Cover
• Controlling Offensive Speech
• Political Campaign Regulations in
Cyberspace
• Anonymity
Controlling Offensive
Speech
What is it? What is illegal?
• Answer depends on who you are
• Many efforts to censor the Internet with
a focus on child pornography or
sexually explicit material
Controlling Offensive
Speech (cont.)
What was already illegal?
• Obscenity
– Depicts a sexual act against state law
– Depicts these acts in a patently offensive
manner that appeals to prurient interest as
judged by a reasonable person using
community standards
– Lacks literary, artistic, social, political or
scientific value
Controlling Offensive
Speech (cont.)
Internet Censorship Laws & Alternatives (cont.):
• Child Online Protection Act of 1998 (COPA):
– Federal crime for commercial web sites to make
available to minors harmful material by FCC
standards
– Found to be unconstitutional:
• Government did not show that COPA was
necessary to protect children
• Child Online Protection Commission concluded
that less restrictive means, filtering, was
superior to COPA
Controlling Offensive
Speech (cont.)
Internet Censorship Laws & Alternatives
(cont.):
• Children's Internet Protection Act of
2000 (CIPA):
– Requires schools and libraries that
participate in certain federal programs
to install filtering software
Controlling Offensive
Speech (cont.)
Internet Censorship Laws & Alternatives (cont.):
• Filters
– Blocks sites with specific words, phrases or
images
– Parental control for sex and violence
– Updated frequently but may still screen out
too much or too little
– Not possible to eliminate all errors
– What should be blocked?
Controlling Offensive
Speech (cont.)
Spam:
• What’s the problem?
– Loosely described as unsolicited bulk email
– Mostly commercial advertisement
– Angers people because content and the way it’s
sent
• Free speech issues
– Spam imposes a cost on others not protected by
free speech
– Spam filters do not violate free speech (free
speech does not require anyone to listen)
Controlling Offensive
Speech (cont.)
Spam (cont.):
• Anti-spam Laws
– Controlling the Assault of Non-
Solicited Pornography and Marketing
Act (CAN-SPAM Act)
– Targets commercial spam
– Criticized for not banning all spam,
legitimized commercial spam
Controlling Offensive
Speech
Discussion Questions
• Why is ‘least restrictive means’
important?
• Do you consider the Internet an
appropriate tool for young children?
Why or why not?
Political Campaign
Regulations
Campaign Laws and the Internet:
• Federal Election Commission (FEC) administers
election laws
– Covers content placed on the Internet for a fee
– Unpaid individuals may put political content on
their Web site, send emails, blog, create or host a
campaign-related Web site and provide links to
campaign sites
– Media exemption applies to traditional news media
and those whose only presence is on the Web
Anonymity
Common Sense and the Internet:
• Anonymity protected by the First Amendment
• Services available to send anonymous email
([Link])
• Anonymizing services used by individuals,
businesses, law enforcement agencies, and
government intelligence services
Anonymity (cont.)
Is Anonymity Protected?
• FEC exempted individuals and organizations
that are not compensated from election laws
that restrict anonymity
• Supreme Court has overturned state laws
that restrict anonymity
• SLAPP, a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public
Participation - lawsuits filed (generally libel)
used to obtain the identities (via subpoena) of
those expressing critical or dissenting
opinions
Anonymity (cont.)
Against Anonymity:
• Fears
– It hides crime or protects criminals
– Glowing reviews (such as those posted on eBay
or [Link]) may actually be from the author,
publisher, seller, or their friends
• U.S. and European countries working on laws that
require ISPs to maintain records of the true identity of
each user and maintain records of online activity for
potential use in criminal investigations
Anonymity Discussion
Questions
• Where (if anywhere) is anonymity
appropriate on the Internet?
• What are some kinds of Web sites that
should prohibit anonymity?
• Where (if anywhere) should laws
prohibit anonymity on the Internet?