Internet Governance

1
Internet Governance

• Emily Heller and Emily Huber

2

Overview for Today

• First Amendment
• Federal Acts to regulate Internet content
• Defining Offensive Speech
• Filtering content for youth
• What if the Internet were a real place?
• Spam

3
Changing Ways of Communication

• For the first time in history, we have a medium
  (the Internet), in which you dont have to be
  rich to have access, and in which you dont have
  to win the approval of an editor or publisher to
  speak your mind.

4
First Amendment

• Internet did not exist at the time Constitution
  was written
• Written for offensive and/or
• controversial speech
• Does not protect libel
• Chilling Effect

5
Traditional Framework

• 3 parts
• Print media
• Broadcast
• Common carriers
• Where does the World Wide Web fit
• into this regulatory structure?

6
Traditional Framework

• Some words may appear in print but you must not
  speak them on the radio.
• Cigarette ads are legal in magazines, but banned
  from radio, television, and all electronic
  media
• Why do you think this is the case? What accounts
  for these differences?

7
Telecommunications Act of 1996

• It clarified the question of liability of all
  Internet service providers (ISPs) for content
  posted by third parties.
• No provider or user of an interactive computer
  service shall be treated as the publisher or
  speaker of any information provided by another
  information content provider.

8
What is Offensive Speech?

• Political or Religious speech?
• Abortion information?
• Anti-abortion information?
• Discussion of suicide?
• Information on how to build
• bombs?
• All of the above?
• None of the above?

9
The definition is subjective

• Varies between countries
• France bans video recording and distribution of
  acts of violence by anyone other than
  professional journalists.
• China restricts reporting of major accidents
• Why do you think this might be the case?
• Any other examples of this?

10
Miller vs.California

• Established guidelines for determining whether
  material is obscene.
• Community standards
• Nothing can be put on the Internet that is more
  racy than would be tolerated in the most
  conservative community in the U.S.
• Issues with Community standards?

11
Communication Decency Act

• What did it do?
• First of legislation to censor the Net
• Focused on protecting youth
• Prosecuted anyone who made obscene or indecent
  material available to minors
• Declared Unconstitutional
• Too vague and broad
• Did not use least restrictive means of
  accomplishing its goal

12
Communication Decency Act

• As the most participatory form of mass speech
  yet developed, the Internet deserves the highest
  protection from government intrusion.
• -Federal Judge
• Do you agree with the courts decision in
  declaring this unconstitutional?

13
Child Online Protection Act

• Less stringent version of CDA
• Sites with harmful material
• requires proof of age
• from site visitors.
• Chilling Effect
• Court ruled not necessary to protect children
• Less restrictive means ? filtering

14
Filtering Software

• Uses words, phrases, images, rating systems,
  block list, parents choose categories to filter,
  log sites visited
• Cannot do a perfect job

What about people who purposely mis-spell words
so that sites are not blocked?
15
Childrens Internet Protection Act

• Requires that schools and libraries funded by
  government install filtering software
• Are there are less restrictive solutions than
  filtering?

16
What if the Internet were a real place?

• 30 million use America Online. Thats like a
  city. Parents wouldnt let their kids wandering
  in a city of 30 million people without them, or
  without knowing what theyre going to be doing.
• -Pam McGraw, America Online

http//www.krapsody.com/2007/08/if-internet-was-re
al.html
17
Spam

• Unsolicited bulk email
• One spammer sent 25 million emails per day
• 30 billion spam messages per day worldwide in
  2006with a population of 6.7 billion, thats at
  least five spam messages per person, per day

http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid-309220805
0920935245einRe_SeX8EJOEqwKp1LjcCwqinternetsp
amhlen
18
Spam

• Would blocking spam count as censorship?
• Freedom of speech does not require unintended
  listener to listen
• Would we have different points of view about
  what is free speech and what is spam depending on
  how sympathetic we are to the organizations
  message?

19
Responses to Spam
20
How to Challenge the Industry

• Challenge-Response Spam Filtering
• What about people whos email
• addresses are forged?
• What about Certified e-mail?
• Do costs outweigh the benefits?
• Should e-mail always be free?

E-mail charge would destroy the spirit of the
Internet. -Richard
Cox