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-Caveat Lector-
US Rejects "Hate Speech Treaty"
In An Amazingly Sensible Move, US Says It Can't Sign Treaty That Violates
Constitution
12/3/02 6:05:45 PM
C-Net
Washington, DC -- http://news.com.com/2100-1023-965983.html
<p>U.S. won't support Net "hate speech" ban
<p>By Declan McCullagh
<p>Staff Writer, CNET News.com
<p>November 15, 2002, 9:47 AM PT
<p>WASHINGTON--The Bush administration said on Friday that it will not
support
a proposed treaty to restrict "hate speech" on the Internet.
<p>Last week, the Council of Europe approved an addition to a
controversial
computer crime treaty that would make it illegal to distribute or publish
anything online that "advocates, promotes or incites hatred (or)
discrimination."
<p>The United States has supported the underlying treaty, which is
designed to
encourage other countries to enact computer crime and intellectual
property
laws, but opposes adding the "hate speech" ban. The ban is titled
an "Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime."
<p>"The important thing to realize is that the U.S. can't be a party to
any
convention that abridges a constitutional protection," said Drew Wade, a
spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department.
<p>Wade said that the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which
guarantees
freedom of speech, prohibits the administration from endorsing last week's
vote by the Council of Europe.
<p>According to a long line of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, "hate speech"
is
generally protected by the First Amendment. There are relatively narrow
exceptions that allow the government to ban threats, words designed to
"incite
an immediate breach of the peace" that are directed at an individual, and
words that are intended to provoke "imminent lawless action."
<p>Wade noted that the "hate speech" ban is "not actually tied to the
convention. It doesn't require countries to accept the protocol to accept
the
convention itself." In other words, the United States could sign the
treaty
but reject the "hate speech" prohibitions.
<p>The U.S. Justice Department has participated in the drafting of the
underlying treaty, which was approved by the Council of Europe last year
and
now is awaiting ratification by participating countries, including the
U.S.,
Canada, Japan and European nations. Civil libertarians have opposed both
the
treaty and the "hate speech" additions.
<p>Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s
technology and liberty program, and a co-founder of the Global Internet
Liberty Campaign (GILC), applauded the Justice Department's position. "I
would
be stunned and I would feel that we have been mislead if the U.S.
government
were now to sign this (additional) protocol," Steinhardt said.
<p>Steinhardt said GILC will still seek to convince countries not to sign
the
computer crime treaty. "It's a blunt instrument when a scalpel is
required,"
he said. "It covers any computer-related crime. If a bank robber uses a
computer to commit a crime, it becomes a cybercrime."
<p>Last week's proposed addition does say that nations who adopt it do not
necessarily have to make publication of "hate speech" a crime if "other
effective remedies are available."
<p>It covers "distributing, or otherwise making available, racist and
xenophobic material to the public through a computer system," defined as
"any
written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or
theories,
which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence,
against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, colour,
descent
or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion."
<p>German law considers the publication of the Holocaust denials and
similar
material as an incitement of racial and ethnic hatred, and therefore
illegal.
In the past, Germany has ordered Internet providers to block access to
U.S.
Web sites that post revisionist literature.
<p>France has similar laws that allowed a students' antiracism group to
successfully sue Yahoo in a Paris court for allowing Third Reich
memorabilia
and Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" to be sold on the company's auction sites.
In
November 2001, a U.S. judge ruled that the First Amendment's guarantee of
free
speech protects Yahoo from liability.
Libertarian Socialist News
Post Office Box 12244
Silver Spring, MD 20908
http://www.overthrow.com
(check out our messageboards -- discuss this story on-line!)
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
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