Online Free Speech Essay Research Paper The

Online Free Speech Essay, Research Paper

The First Amendment gives American citizens the right to learn and express themselves. The American public embraces the First Amendment, but may not be aware how often this amendment is challenged by new components. The arriving challenges are all derived from power, meaning “The ability to cause others to modify their behavior and to conform to what the power holder wants.”(Bardes, Shelley II, Schmidt, 9). To whom is the power allocated, who supports it, and when do people rebel against a certain power. Internet censorship is a current political power struggle. Internet regulation is a fairly recent issue in the American society, with the first mentions of it appearing in 1996 with the Communications Decency Act. The information highway has become a major path to the learning experience, in turn, the concept of bypassing the indecent websites has increased. Who is right or wrong isn’t the focus, it’s who has the power and how are they going to use it. The 1996 political party platform that best supports Internet free speech would have to be the education platform, mostly supported by the democratic side. Democrats platform states “Education is the key to opportunity…education is the fault line that separates those who will prosper from those who cannot”(Baxter, 2). This supports it best because the internet’s main purpose is to educate the public, and education is what furthers people to have a more prosperous future. The GOP party education platform is based on funding and ethics of the republican party. The republican party wants to give grants to the states that follow the party’s specific standards (Baxter, 2). There is a great deal of money at stake here, education was the number one project of California taxpayers money in 1997-98, spending 46% of the tax revenue for community colleges and K-12 grades (Huber, 142). This relates to internet regulation because the GOP wants to issue grants to update computers and intenet access only to schools and libraries who comply with their censorship views. Republicans support a bill that would promote a “filter” which would force schools and libraries to equip the public computers with a system that would sift out sexual material in order to qualify for federal funds to improve internet access. This will allow schools and libraries to pay for internet service with a piece of the new two billion dollar a year “E-Rate” fund, which is to be paid into by telecommunications companies and collected by the Federal Communications Commission. A republican senator, John McCain from Arizona introduced a bill May of 1998, stating that institutions need to prove they are using software or other technology blocking access to sexually explicit sites at all school computers, and at at least one library specially marked for children’s use. Critics of this bill say that the technology is far from foolproof, and that decisions about control and access should be made locally with respect for the first amendment. Another republican senator, Dan Coats, from Indiana went to a rural Indiana high school to express his opinion on the subject. He described graphic internet images that were viewed inside the school library. Along with Sen. McCain, they called these images “horrific” and he was “so shocked and taken back”(O’Connor, 2). Some witnesses at the Indiana high school counseled caution in enacting any federal controls on internet content, and warned that existing screening technology falls short of the goal to place a strong barrier between kids and on-line sex. It is argued that McCain’s Bill, and Coats’ Ideas make the same mistake. Daniel Weitzner, deputy director of the center for Democracy and Technology (a Washington public interest group) said that the links between on-line images and pedophilla “seem entirely unsubstantiated”(O’Connor, 4). At a further meeting of argument on this subject, the sharpest of critics were not asked to testify, such as the National Education Association, the American Library Association, and the Internet Free Expression Alliance – a group whose members include the American Civil Liberties Union, American Society of Newspaper Editors, and People for the American Way. The reason they were not chosen to speak is due to their opinions, best represented by Lynne E. Bradley, the deputy executive director of the ALA’s Washington office “We think there is no need for a federal mandate, We think that decisions on controls are best made as a local decision”(O’Connor, 4). Republicans are using many tactics to transfer power to their favor. The main tactic expressed is based on “the cause and effect” on the American children who will be subject to harmful material released on the internet. Of course another, more obvious tactic is law, by making bills to go through the senate and the house of representatives they increase the chances of persuading the law in the preferred direction. By using these tactics in the American society the Republican party hopes to gain support and win the cause that they believe in. Representative Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York who supports filters, warns that government pressure to force the use of filters could lead to special interests groups or local governments to press Internet service providers to filter information before users have a chance to see it. Nadler says his biggest fear is that congress will try to move too fast. He has fear that if this mand