Question #5

#5: Discuss one important policy issue for the Internet.


I often think that the problem we face with policy as related to the internet, is that the technology and access to the technology is so completely far ahead of any policies. Issues arise that most could not predict and thus we find most policy or laws being extremely reactive, as opposed to proactive. There are many obvious issues facing the internet right now, but I gave your question a great deal of thought, and think a critical issues we should investigate and discuss is How to handle hate speech. Can it be censored and should it be? The first amendment of the US Constitution prohibits the broad regulation of speech. However one can look for themselves, with very little effort, on the internet and see sites that claim the hollocaust was a fake, and blame the Jews for all that is wrong in the world with anti-semetic rants, or sites that claim that lesbians and gays are subhuman, or other racist sites that claim similar disgusting ideas to further hate. We see social networking sites posting innapropriate pictures of people and saying terrible things about others as a form of bullying. So if we are to uphold the ideas of free speech in America, how can we introduce policy that can help stop this spread of hate online without it being unconstititional or seen as sensorship?