Research Paper

Free speech when it comes to the use of the internet

Technology has evolved the way people communicate over time, with communication
occurring more over the internet than face-to-face communication. The increased use of
technology has resulted in the increased calls for the protection of freedom of speech as
protected under the first amendment. Censorship of the media has brome necessary over time,
with bullying, terrorist threats, and cyber-attacks becoming common. Free speech is an
essential right that should not be curtailed for any reason necessitating the need to insist on
self-regulation. This paper will conclude that state regulation is not the way to go but instead
highlight the need for internet regulators to understand their responsibilities to self regulate
and ensure there is the protection of the freedom of expression on the internet.

The internet challenges the right to freedom of expression is protected under the
international human rights treaties. On the one hand, the internet is praised for empowering
the freedom of expression o individuals by giving them access to new ways of seeking
information. On the other hand, the free flow of information has raised concerns about abuse
of the internet, raising calls for regulation and censorship to protect individuals against
harmful information (Nunziato,2020).In the year 2000, the united states congress passes the
Children 's Internet Protection Act. The law requires libraries and schools to install protection
safeguards to shield minors from accessing adult content. Therefore the law provided that the
o relevant stakeholders should put software to filter adult content as a c precondition to such
organizations to receive federal grants for internet access or computers. The call for state
intervention in the united states has resulted in the US communication Decemcy aaCt that
came into force in 1996 (Jørgensen, 2001). both regulations we aimed at regulating the
information contained online to ensure that harmful information is not accessed. The legal
attempts to regulate online content have resulted in increased calls for the state to stop

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implementing such laws. They are a violation of the freedom of speech when it comes to
online platforms. The increased concerns have questioned the extent to which the protection
should be enabled for the communicative sphere of cyberspace.

Freedom of speech protects the individual's right to have the freedom to voice their
opinions and receive information without any interference from state organs. The
presumption of freedom is built on the idea that the state manages the public space. However,
when it comes to the internet, the area s largely ungoverned and is mostly managed by private
parties instead of the state. The internet has been credited with strengthening civil society and
empowering individuals (Jørgensen, 2001). Despite the negative impacts of the use o the
internet space, it has also resulted in increased awareness among individuals and created a lot
of jobs (Jørgensen, 2001)..E-commerce has been able to pick up as a result of usage over the
internet where an individual can conduct business at the comfort t of their home. Search
engines are crucial tools in the internet platforms, and they could work as barriers to the
retrieval of information where filter control systems ate placed into that arena.

The two major concerns over the use of the internet have been concerns about the
freedom of privacy and speech. The state has faced challenges when trying to implement any
regulation or control measures to safeguard users, necessitating the change in approach to
encourage content providers to adopt their own codes ad regulations to ensure that safe
content is available over the internet.

References

Jørgensen, R. F. (2001). Internet and Freedom of expression.
http://ladoc.ffii.fr/Internet_and_FoE.pdf. https://adoc.ffii.fr/Internet_and_FoE.pdf

Nunziato, D. C. (2020). Virtual Freedom. Stanford University Press.