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IP: Stokey Il yet again
From: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 14:18:28 -0500
Fax UNITED STATES 3 Wednesday, Jan. 10, 1996 Jewish Group Seeks Internet Restraints Citing "the rapidly expanding pres-ence of organized hate groups on the Internet,'' a leading Jewish human rights group Tuesday began sending letters to hundreds of Internet access providers and universities asking them to refuse to carry messages that "promote racism, anti-Semitism, may-hem and violence.'' The letter from the Simon Wiesen-thal Center, a 425,000-member organi-zation based in Los Angeles, is the lat-est in a growing effort by legislators and private interest groups to censor offensive material on the global data network, which now connects millions of computer users worldwide. "Internet providers have a First Amendment right and a moral obliga-tion not to provide these groups with a platform for their destructive propa-ganda, '' Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center's associate dean, wrote in the letter that was sent to Internet service providers. Rabbi Cooper said the group's target was not the many discussion forums where individuals debate such topics as whether the Holocaust actually oc-curred, but rather the Internet's World Wide Web. Dozens of groups, from white supremacists to anarchists, have pub-lished documents on the Web about their points of view. Some are revi-sionist histories questioning whether there was a Holocaust and some are racist tracts denigrating blacks, Jews, homosexuals and other minorities. By PETER H. LEWIS
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