Can Free Speech and Internet Filters Co-Exist?

AUGUST 19, 2013, The New York Times

DEBATERS

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  Untouched by the First Amendment

  JILLIAN C. YORK, ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION
  We treat services like Tumblr and Facebook as the public commons, but they are private companies. Still, their censorship has a chilling effect.
• 

  The Only Sound Approach Is to ‘Opt In’

  JOSH ONG, THE NEXT WEB
  Filtering can co-exist with free speech if each user chooses to avoid some content. That doesn't strip others of the right of expression.
• 

  It’s Just ‘Security Theater’

  CORY DOCTOROW, CO-EDITOR, BOING BOING
  No one seriously pretends that this will stop kids from finding porn. But a regime of total, national surveillance serves an important political purpose.
• 

  Censoring, Without Filtering

  ROGER DARLINGTON, FORMER CHAIRMAN, INTERNET WATCH FOUNDATION
  Britain has already found an effective model to limit access to images of child abuse. There may be lessons to be learned from it.
• 

  Instead of Resisting Porn, Improve It

  ANDERS SANDBERG, FUTURE OF HUMANITY INSTITUTE
  So much online pornography is user-created that would-be censors should consider what role the genre plays, and what good it could do.
• 

  Technology Sold Into the Wrong Hands

  COLLIN ANDERSON, VISITING SCHOLAR, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
  Britain’s most unsettling contribution to repression may be its tacit endorsement of crackdowns abroad, made possible by British companies.

INTRODUCTION

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

The British government and the blogging site Tumblr are both cracking down on porn this summer. But their crackdowns are blocking more than porn, like social networking sites andposts about gay and lesbian issues. The filter in Britain is even being administered in part by a company with close ties to the Chinese government, known for political censorship.

With the goal of being “family friendly,” is the Internet becoming too censored? Can efforts to filter the Internet be compatible with free speech, or will the two always be in conflict?

READ THE DISCUSSION »