Chapter 3:

Freedom of Speech

Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye. Fourth edition revisions by Sharon Gray.
 Communication Paradigms
 Controlling Speech
 Posting, Selling, and Leaking Sensitive Material
 Anonymity
 The Global Net: Censorship and Political
Freedom
 Net Neutrality Regulations or the Market?

Corresponding page number: 133

Regulating communications media
 First Amendment protection and government
regulation
 Print media (newspapers, magazines, books)
 Broadcast (television, radio)
 Common carries (telephones, postal system)

Corresponding page number: 134-136

 We do not need expensive printing presses or
complex distribution systems. We need only a
computer or a cellphone.
 Any business, organization, or individual can
set up a website.
 We can “publish” whatever we wish; it is
available for anyone who chooses to read it.

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Offensive speech: What is it? What is illegal?
 Answers depend on who you are:
The Chinese government restricts reporting
of emergencies (such as major accidents or
disasters) and how the government handles
them. The French government approved a
law banning anyone except professional
journalists from recording or distributing
video of acts of violence.

Corresponding page number: 139

 Most efforts to censor the Internet focus on
pornographic and other sexually explicit
material:
The Internet began as a forum for research and
scientific discussion, so the rapid spread of
pornography shocked some people. It is not,
however, a surprising development. The same
kind of material was already available in adult
magazines, bookstores, and movie theatres.

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Internet Censorship:
 Censorship is the attempt to suppress or
regulate public access to material considered
offensive or harmful. Historically, most
censorship has been exercised by
governments and religious institutions

Corresponding page number: 142-143

Video Games
A California law banned sale or rental of
violent video games to minors.
Some argue that the interactivity of video
games has a more powerful impact on children
than passively watching television or reading a
violent story

Corresponding page number: 143-144

Alternatives to censorship
 Filters
 A Web filter is a piece of software that
prevents certain Web pages from being
displayed by your browser. While you are
running your browser, the filter runs as a
background process, checking every page
your browser attempts to load. If the filter
determines that the page is objectionable,
it prevents the browser from displaying it.

Corresponding page number: 145

 Filters can be installed on individual
computers, or an ISP may provide filtering
services for its customers.

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 Typical filters use two different methods to
determine if a page should be blocked. The
first method is to check the URL of the page
against a “blacklist” of objectionable sites. If
the Web page comes from a blacklisted site,
it is not displayed. The second method is to
look for combinations of letters or words that
may indicate a site has objectionable content.

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 Sites about Middlesex and Essex
 Sites about information about breast cancer.
 the home page of a university’s biology
department

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Alternatives to censorship
 Policies
 Commercial services, online communities, and social
networking sites develop policies to protect
members.
 Video game industry developed rating system that
provides an indication for parents about the amount
of sex, bad language, and violence in a game.

Corresponding page number: 145

Spam
 Loosely described as unsolicited bulk email
 Mostly commercial advertisement

Corresponding page number: 148-149

Spam
 Where do spammers get email lists with millions of
addresses? The Internet provides a variety sources
of email addresses that can be harvested and sold
to spammers. For example, email addresses often
appear in Web sites, in chat-room conversations,
and newsgroups. Some computer viruses gather
email addresses stored in the address books of PCs
and transmit these addresses to spammers.

Corresponding page number: 148-149

Spam
 Another way to garner email addresses is through
dictionary attacks (also called directory harvest
attacks). Spammers bombard Internet service
providers with millions of emails containing made-
up addresses, such as AdamA@isprovider.com,
AdamB@ isprovider.com, AdamC@isprovider.com,
and so on. Of course, most of these emails will
bounce back, because the addresses are no good.
However, if an email doesn’t bounce, the spammer
knows there is a user with that email address and
adds it to its mailing list.
Corresponding page number: 148-149
Spam
 Sometimes people freely reveal their email
address. Have you ever entered a contest on the
Web? There is a good chance to find on the entry
form , you agree to receive “occasional offers of
products you might find valuable” from the
company’s marketing partners;

Corresponding page number: 148-149

Spam
 What’s the problem?
 Angers people because of content and the way it’s sent
 Free speech issues
 Spam developed because email is extremely cheap
compared to printed direct-mail advertising.
 Spam filters do not violate free speech (free speech
does not require anyone to listen)

Corresponding page number: 148-149

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Tools for communication, tools for oppression (cont.)
Attempts to limit the flow of information on the Internet
similar to earlier attempts to place limits on other
communications media
Some countries own the Internet backbone within their
countries and block specific sites and content at the border
Some countries ban all or certain types of access to the
Internet

Corresponding page number: 163-165

 In countries such as China and Saudi Arabia,
where the national government owns the
Internet backbone (the communications lines
and computers through which people access
information), the governments install their
own computers between their people and
the outside world. They use sophisticated
firewalls and filters to block what they do not
want their people to see.

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 The government of Saudi Arabia blocks
pornography and gambling, as many
countries might, but it also blocks sites on the
Bahai faith, the Holocaust, and religious
conversion of Muslims to other faiths

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Tools for communication, tools for oppression (cont.)
Avoiding censorship: the global nature of the Net allows
restrictions (or barriers) in one country to be circumvented
by using networks in other, less restrictive countries.
Creating censorship: the global nature of the Net makes it
easier for one nation to impose restrictive standards on
others.

Corresponding page number: 163-165

Aiding foreign censors and repressive regimes
Yahoo and French censorship
 Yahoo, eBay and others make decisions to

comply with foreign laws for business reasons

Skype and Chinese control
 Chinese government requires modified
version of Skype

Corresponding page number: 165-167

 Companies who do business in countries that
control Internet access must comply with the
local laws
 Google argued that some access is better than
no access

Corresponding page number: 165-167

Selling surveillance tools
Repressive governments intercept citizens’
communications and filter Internet content.
Companies in Western democracies sell them the
sophisticated tools to do so.

Corresponding page number: 167