Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Hate Website's Service Provider Fine a First
For the first time in Canada, an Internet service provider has been found guilty and fined for hosting websites that spread hate messages against blacks, Jews and Muslims.
In the landmark ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal yesterday, southern Ontario's white supremacy movement also took a hit, with two leaders and one group found guilty of violating the Canadian Human Rights Act and ordered to pay $8,000 in fines and compensation.
The Internet service provider, Affordable Space. com, was fined $5,000.
Source-Free Press Canada
_____________________________________
Every democratic society has determined how far the concept of "freedom of speech" will go. The original delineation of it in the USA at the Founding, for instance, was that only political speech was automatically assured as free from proscription.
Now we have the Wild West of the Internet and few attempts have been yet made to curb any free speech there. But, this precedent is an inevitable first step at regulating speech on the internet and it should be closely watched by liberty lovers everywhere.
I cannot say that it is necessarily alarming. But it is something we must keep an eye on in the west. We must not allow government to overstep its boundaries by over regulating speech on the internet, but, on the other hand, there is no reason to expect the internet should be assumed to be a place where any manner of inciting rhetoric, racist attacks or even libel should be allowed in some naive quest for freedom of speech.
It is certainly a sticky-wicket to try and make the determination when "freedom of speech" should be curtailed, but that is why we have the democratic system. If we feel things have gotten out of hand, take it to the ballot boxes and the courts. After all, every society has the right to decide collectively, what it refuses to give a soap box upon which to disseminate certain ideas.
-Warner Todd Huston
# posted by Publius @ 3/14/2006 08:26:00 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
And the irony is how much political speech is under attack by John McCain and his allies.
# posted by 
: 3/14/2006 10:14:00 PM
: 3/14/2006 10:14:00 PM
Agreed.
I hold to the Founder's ideals that political speech should remain free of oppressions. But that there is a legetimate mode of community standard for some other speech.
I hold to the Founder's ideals that political speech should remain free of oppressions. But that there is a legetimate mode of community standard for some other speech.
# posted by : 3/14/2006 10:16:00 PM
: 3/14/2006 10:16:00 PM
the comment before ,hit the nail on the head. there should be freedom of speech, however this precious benefit should not be abused, by one who just wants to voice there opinion about any thing without accountability.
Post a Comment
# posted by : 3/15/2006 04:33:00 PM
: 3/15/2006 04:33:00 PM << Home
|
