Free Speech

Cases on Freedom of Speech on the Internet

Ever since the advent of the internet, there has been debate over how this new forum should be regulated. The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil liberties organizations have done an incredible job of fighting off government agencies, leaving the internet unregulated in terms of speech. The biggest case on the topic of freedom of speech on the internet is a recently ruled case: ACLU v. Gonzales.

ACLU v. Gozales (ACLU v. Ashcroft, ACLU v. Reno): Federal appeals court strikes down the Children's Online Protection Act (previously the Communications Decency Act) as it violates the first amendment.

The Communications Decency Act was first passed in the mid-nineties in order to protect kids from potentially harmful content on the internet. Critics worried that the act was much too vague and could be used to penalize and restrict various adult oriented writing and art. ACLU took the case to an appeals court which struck the law down stating that the law was "imprecise" and did not meet the standards that a regulatory law would need.

Congress rewrote the bill and called it the Child Online Protection Act only to see it take the same route as it was struck down as unconstitutional by an appelate court.

Many say that the ACLU v. Gonzales will set the tone for internet speech regulation for decades to come. Seeing as how the court dirrentiates the regulated medium of TV and the unregulated one of the internet, it would be hard for anyone to pass any law to limit the internet's capacity. While arguing the freedom of speech decision, court justices stated that TV needs to be regulated because it is a medium used by a select few who can afford to broadcast while the internet can be used as a medium by anyone.

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