FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION:
OVERVIEW

Anonymous, or Anon, is a movement made up of

a number of nameless internet activists from
around the world.
For many, the 'hacktivist' group has become the
face of the new cyber-war against oppressive
governments and all-powerful corporate. Others
say the group's actions are reckless.
Describing itself as "the freedom of speech, the
freedom of information and the freedom of
expression taken to a logical extreme," Anon says
it breaks laws, but only for the greater good

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Anonymous the latest and most active Hacktivists today.

FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

The internet enables a worldwide exchange of
news, ideas, opinions, rumors, and information.
Its broad accessibility, open-minded discussions,
and anonymity make the Internet an ideal
communication medium.
People must often make ethical decisions about
how to use such remarkable freedom and power.
Like the popular quote goes with great power
comes great responsibility.

FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

The right to freedom of expression is one of the most important
rights for free people anywhere.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted to
guarantee this right and others. The First Amendment
reads:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government
for a redress of grievances.
In other words, the First Amendment protects the right to
freedom of religion and freedom of expression from
government interference.

FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

Numerous court decisions have broadened the definition of speech to include
nonverbal, visual, and symbolic forms of expression, such as burning the
national flags, dance movements, and hand gestures.
But the most relevant to information technology types of speech are obscene
speech and defamation.
Obscene speech- An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the
prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent,
abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious. The term is also applied
to an object that incorporates such a statement or displays such an act.
Defamation- Defamationalso called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander
(for transitory statements), and libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise
published words)is the communication of a statement that makes a claim,
expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business,
product, group, government, or nation a negative image. It is usually a
requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated
to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).

OBSCENE SPEECH
The IT city of Hyderabad was shocked by the news of a cyber crime. A
man whose marriage alliance was turned down tormented the
woman by putting up obscene profiles of her on the Internet

OBSCENE SPEECH
There are three questions in the First Amendment
that will help determine if the speech can be
considered obscene. These are the ff:
1) Would the average person, applying
contemporary community standards, find that
the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the
prurient interest?
2) Does the work depict or describe, in a patently
offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined
by the applicable state law?
3) Does the work, taken as a whole lack serious
literary, artistic, political, or scientific value?

OBSCENE SPEECH
These tests has raised many issues, like how a
work can be assessed by its impact on an average
adult in a community , who is an average adult,
what are the contemporary community
standards, and in the mere case of potentially
obscene material displayed world-wide on the
Internet, what is the community?

DEFAMATION
The dangers of defaming somebody on the internet have been brought to
the fore, with a group of Sydney men now at risk of losing their jobs for
bad-mouthing their boss on Facebook - 17 September 2009

DEFAMATION
The right to freedom of expression is restricted when
the expressions, whether spoken or written, are
untrue and cause harm to another person. This
publication of a statement of alleged fact that is false
and harms another person is defamation.
Two different types:
Slander- oral defamatory
Libel- written defamatory
Although people have the right to express opinions,
they must exercise care in their Internet
communications to avoid possible charges of
defamation.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: KEY

ISSUES
Information technology has provided amazing new
ways to communicate with people around the
world. With these new methods come
responsibilities and new ethical problems.
Some of the key issues are: controlling access to
information on the Internet, anonymity,
defamation, hate speech , and pornography.

CONTROLLING ACCESS TO INFORMATION ON

THE INTERNET
Have you thought about the consequences of putting information about
yourself up on the web?
An informative visual video experience created by 4 communication master
s students at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

CONTROLLING ACCESS TO
INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET
One of the main reasons to support control of
access to information in the internet is the
childrens capability of accessing the Internet.
Here are some of the sections that address this
issue.
The Communications Decency Act(CDA)
This act aimed at protecting children from online
pornography. The CDA imposed $250,000 fines
and prison terms of up to two years for the
transmission of indecent material over the
Internet.

CONTROLLING ACCESS TO
INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET
The Child Online Protection Act(COPA)
In October 1998, the COPA was signed into law.
The law states that whoever knowingly and with
knowledge of the character of the material, in
interstate or foreign commerce by means of the
World Wide Web, makes any communication for
commercial purposes that is available to any
minor and that includes any material that is
harmful to minors shall be fined not more than
$50,000, imprisoned not more than 6 months, or
both.

CONTROLLING ACCESS TO
INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET
Internet Filtering
An internet filter is software that can be installed with a
Web browser to block access to certain web sites that
contain inappropriate or offensive material.
The best internet filters use a combination of URL filtering,
keyword filtering, and dynamic content filtering.
URL filtering- is filtering a particular URL or domain name
identified as an objectionable site.
Keyword filtering- uses keywords or phrases such as sex,
Satan, f***, b*tch, and gambling to trigger the blocking of
web sites.
Dynamic content filtering- each websites content is
evaluated immediately before it is displayed by using
image recognition and object analysis.

ANONYMITY
The principle of anonymous expression allows
people to state their opinions without revealing
their identity. The freedom to express an opinion
without fear of reprisal is an important right of a
democratic society. Anonymity is even more
important in countries that dont allow free
speech. However, in the wrong hands, anonymous
communication can be used as a tool to commit
illegal or unethical activities.

ANONYMITY:ANONYMOUS
Anonymity at the wrong hands? Or not?

ANONYMITY: WAYS FOR BEING ANONYMOUS:

Anonymous Remailers
Maintaining anonymity is a legitimate need for some
Internet activities. Internet users who want to
remain anonymous can send e-mail to an anonymous
remailer service, where a computer program strips
the originating address from the message. It then
forwards the message to its intended recipient.
John Doe Lawsuit
in a John Doe Lawsuit, the identity of the defendant
is temporarily unknown. Such suits are common in
the internet libel cases, where the defendant
communicates using a pseudonym or anonymously.

NATIONAL SECURITY LETTER (NSL)

A NSL requires financial institutions to turn over
electronic records about finances, telephone calls,
e-mail, and other personal information of
suspected terrorists or spies. Recent
developments have expanded the scope and power
of NSLs to the point that some believe they now
represent a threat to freedom of speech.

PORNOGRAPHY
Many adults(also my classmates) and free-speech
advocates believe that nothing is illegal or wrong about
purchasing adult pornographic material made for and
by consenting adults. But some are deeply concerned
about its impact on children and fear that increasingly
easy access to pornography encourages pedophiles and
sexual molesters.
Today, the internet has been a boom to the pornography
industry by providing fast, cheap and convenient access
to more than 60,000 web sex sites.
About one in four regular Internet user (almost 21
million Americans) visits a Web sex site at least once a
month- more than the number of visitors to web sports
sites.

PORNOGRAPHY
Companies established steps that includes a
computer usage policy that prohibits access to
pornography sites, identifying those who violate
the policy, and taking action against those usersno matter how embarrassing it is for the users or
how harmful it might be for the company,
because as long as they were taking reasonable
steps to prevent pornography, they have a valid
defense if they are subject to a sexual harassment
lawsuit.

PORNOGRAPHY
Free speech or something else?