The Future of The Internet
Conference

Speaker Notes:

David Post
Dan Burk
Robert Crandall
Trotter Hardy
Lori Fena
Danny Weitzner
Eugene Volokh
David Sobel
Clarles Platt

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"Private Online Speech Controls: Censorship,
Constitutionally Protected Editing, or Both?"

Speaker: Eugene Volokh
UCLA Law School

Private Online Speech Restrictions:

· Censorship,

· Constitutionally
Protected Editing,

· or Both?

Focus on Electronic Conferences:

· Many-to-many media, such as

Newsgroups.

Discussion lists.

Chat groups.

Non-Internet

bulletin boards.

Kinds of Restrictions:

· On WHO can use an electronic conference.

· On WHAT they can say in one.

No Clear Answers

· Refusing to invite [Nazis/Democrats].

· Blocking offensive [words/ideas] from conference.

· Jew, welsh, and slave.

Censorship

· Perhaps should be reserved for government restraints.

· But must remember that great majority of restraints is private, and these restraints are not risk free.

Enforcement Means:

· Manual pre-screening (moderating).

· Automatic screening for words.

· Deleting messages.

· Kicking people off.

Other Contexts:

· Parental use of shielding software for Web access.

· Provider use of such software.

· Provider restrictions on user Web pages.

Not Unconstitutional:

· No state action.

· Even if conference is on government computer.

· And probably even if run by public
university academic.

Constitutionally Protected:

· Decisions to exclude content are protected editing choices.

· Decisions to exclude people (especially by race, sex, religion, etc.) are trickier.

Right and Wrong, not Legal and Illegal

· Not enough to say Do what you think is right.

· Must discuss what people should think is right.

Troubling Private Restrictions

· Systemic refusal to hire Communists.

· College speech codes.

· Verbal pickiness.

· Narrow-mindedness.

But Unlimited Speech Is Not the Answer

· Quality of dialogue threatened by Rudeness. Low signal-to- noise:

· Off-topic.

· Ignorant.

· Repetitive.

Moral Choices

· Even if quality of dialogue not threatened, should we disassociate ourselves from reprehensible speech?

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