Free Speech on the Web - How Far Can We Go?

by Steve Ortman


PORN, GAMBLING, PROPAGANDA, are all these things stuff to regulate? Many Internet hardcore freaks commonly claim that the internet should be under no circumstances restricted in any possible direction, because once the federal government starts to regulate the Internet no one will be able to freely state his or her mind. This maybe the worst case scenario that could be possible, but more likely would be that nothing would happen just because the world is so big and no one can regulate what's put out there?

Can't they? Let us take into account that there could one day be a technology that could block certain pages? All these things are possible, and maybe even necessary, because that extremly bad stuff, like children porn or spam of the worst kind should be banned from ever reaching the desktops of ordinary American citizen. Free speech is the most important amendment to the Constitution, but it is also one that should be left without any regulation. You have the right to bare arms, but you certainly don't have the right to kill people with those arms.