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IP: ACLU White Paper on Internet Ratings and Blocking (fwd)
From: David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 1997 19:42:17 -0400
From: Stanton McCandlish <mech () eff org> The White paper described in the attached press release can be found on-line at http://www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/burning.htm Is Cyberspace Burning? Internet Ratings May Torch Free Speech on the Net, ACLU Warns FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (related materials) Thursday, August 7, 1997 NEW YORK -- In a 15-page white paper released today, the American Civil Liberties Union warned that government-coerced, industry efforts to rate content on the Internet could torch free speech online. After reviewing plans that came out of a White House summit on Internet censorship, the ACLU said that it was genuinely alarmed at industry leaders' unabashed enthusiasm in pledging to create a variety of schemes to regulate and block controversial online speech. It was not any one proposal or announcement that gave cause for alarm, the ACLU said, but rather the failure to examine the longer-term implications for the Internet of rating and blocking schemes. "In the physical world, people censor the printed word by burning books," said Barry Steinhardt, Associate Director of the ACLU and one of the paper's authors. "But in the virtual world, you can just as easily censor controversial speech by banishing it to the farthest corners of cyberspace with blocking and rating schemes." The recent rush to regulate comes in the wake of a sweeping Supreme Court victory in Reno v. ACLU, confirming that the Internet is analogous to books, not broadcast, and is deserving of the highest First Amendment protection. The ACLU was a lead plaintiff and litigator in the suit. "Today, all that we have achieved may now be lost, if not in the bright flames of censorship then in the dense smoke of the many ratings and blocking schemes promoted by some of the very people who fought for freedom," the ACLU warns. The white paper, entitled Fahrenheit 451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning? details the free speech threats of the various ratings plans being proposed. The ACLU offers a set of five recommendations and principles, and discusses self-rating, third-party ratings, and the use of filtering software in homes and libraries. Perhaps the greatest danger to free speech online is the notion of self-rating, the ACLU said, a concept "no less offensive to the First Amendment than a proposal that publishers of books and magazines rate each and every article or story, or a proposal that everyone engaged in a street corner conversation rate his or her comments." Applying the rating requirement to the active and vibrant conversational areas of the Internet -- chat rooms, news groups and mailing lists -- would be analogous to requiring all of us to rate our telephone, dinner party or water cooler conversations, the ACLU said. Third-party ratings systems pose free speech problems as well. With few third-party rating products currently available, the potential for arbitrary censorship increases. In addition, the ACLU said that the use of filtering programs in public libraries, which are governmental entities, would violate the First Amendment. These programs often block access to valuable speech, including safer sex information, gay and lesbian web sites, and even speech that is critical of the filtering software itself. During the summit, according to the white paper, Vice President Gore, along with industry and non-profit groups, announced the creation of a web site that provides direct links to a variety of blocking programs. Calling for the producers of all of these products to put real power in users' hands, the ACLU urged them to provide full disclosure of their lists of blocked speech and the criteria for blocking. The white paper was distributed today along with an open letter from Steinhardt to members of the Internet community. "It is not too late for the Internet community to slowly and carefully examine these proposals and to reject those that will transform the Internet from a true marketplace of ideas into just another mainstream, lifeless medium," Steinhardt said in the letter. The ACLU also sent the paper to President Clinton and Vice President Gore, and to industry leaders and policy makers involved in the White House summit. In a separate letter to industry leaders, Steinhardt requested a meeting to discuss the proposed plans for rating and blocking. The principal authors of Is Cyberspace Burning? are Ann Beeson, Chris Hansen and Barry Steinhardt. Hansen and Beeson are ACLU national staff attorneys who were members of the Reno v. ACLU litigation team. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ Barry Steinhardt Barrys () aclu org Associate Director 212 549-2508 American Civil Liberties Union 212-549-2652 (fax) 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor NYC 10004 **** PGP Key available at: http://www.aclu.org/about/pgpkeys.html **** Visit the ACLU Web Site http://www.aclu.org or ACLU on AOL at Keyword ACLU ACLU Supports the Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC) http://www.gilc.org -- Stanton McCandlish mech () eff org Electronic Frontier Foundation Program Director http://www.eff.org/~mech +1 415 436 9333 x105 (v), +1 415 436 9333 (f) Are YOU an EFF member? http://www.eff.org/join
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- IP: ACLU White Paper on Internet Ratings and Blocking (fwd) David Farber (Aug 07)