Essay About Democratic Constitutions And Third Party

Censorship and the Internet
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Censorship And The Internet
The freedom of speech that was possible on the
Internet could now be subjected to governmental approvals. For example,
China is attempting to restrict political expression, in the name of
security and social stability. It requires users of the Internet an d
electronic mail (e-mail) to register, so that it may monitor their
activities.9 In the United Kingdom, state secrets and personal attacks are
off limits on the Internet. Laws are strict and the government is
extremely interested in regulating the Intern et with respect to these
issues.10 Laws intended for other types of communication will not
necessarily apply in this medium. Through all the components of the
Internet it becomes easy to transfer material that particular governments
might find objectionable. However, all of these means of communicating on
the Internet make up a large and vast system. For inspectors to monitor
every e-mail, every article in every Newsgroup, every Webpage, every IRC
channel, every Gopher site and every FTP site would be near impossible.
Besides taking an ext raordinary amount of money and time, attempts to
censor the Internet violate freedom of speech rights that are included in
democratic constitutions and international laws.11 It would be a breach of
the First Amendment. The Constitution of the United Stat es of America
declares that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redr ess of grievances”
Therefore it would be unconstitutional for any sort of censorship to occur
on the Internet and affiliated services. Despite the illegality,
restrictions on Internet access and content are increasing worldwide under
all forms of government. In France, a co untry where the press generally
has a large amount of freedom, the Internet has recently been in the
spotlight. A banned book on the health history of former French president
Francois Mitterrand was republished electronically on the World Wide Web
(WWW). Apparently, the electronic reproduction of Le Grand Secret by a
third party wasnt banned by a court that ruled that the printed version
of the book unlawfully violated Mitterrands privacy. To enforce
censorship of the Internet, free societies find that they become more
repressive and closed societies find new ways to crush political
expression and opposition.13 Vice – President Al Gore, while at an
international conference in Brussels about
the Internet, in a keynote address said that “[Cyberspace] is about
protecting and enlarging freedom of expression for all our citizens
Ideas should not be checked at the border”.14 Another person attending
that conference was Ann Breeson of the Ame rican Civil Liberties Union, an
organization dedicated to preserving many things including free speech.
She is quoted as saying, “Our big victory at Brussels was that we
pressured them enough so that Al Gore in his keynote address made a big
point of stre ssing the importance of free speech on the Internet.”15 Many
other organizations have fought against laws and have succeeded. A prime
example of this is the fight that various groups put on against the recent
Communication Decency Act (CDA) of the U.S. Se nate. The Citizens Internet
Empowerment Coalition on 26 February 1996 filed a historic lawsuit in
Philadelphia against the U.S. Department of Justice and Attorney General
Janet Reno to make certain that the First Amendment of the U.S.A. would
not be compr omised by the CDA. The sheer range of plaintiffs alone,
including the American Booksellers Association, the Freedom to Read
Foundation, Apple, Microsoft, America Online, the Society of Professional
Journalists, the Commercial Internet eXchange Association , Wired, and
HotWired, as well as thousands of netizens (citizens of the Internet)
shows the dedication that is felt by many different people and groups to
the cause of free speech on the Internet.16 “Words like shit, fuck, piss,
and tits. Words of which our mothers (at least some of them) would no
doubt disapprove, but which by no means should be regulated by the
government. But its not just about dirty words. Its also about words
like AIDS, gay, a nd breasts. Its about sexual content, and politically
controversial topics like drug addiction, euthanasia, and racism.”17 Just
recently in France,