Hate vs. free speech

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As opposed to their position on Web sites, online services have fought to block unwanted email even when hate messages are not an issue. Sanford Wallace, known on the Net as "the king of spam," has engaged in legal jousting with AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy over their efforts to preempt mass emailings from his company, Cyber Promotions.

Although the rights that emerged from these cases are unclear, Cyber Promotions' claims to First Amendment protection could serve as a basis for challenges by extremist groups if Internet service providers were to deny access to their Web sites, Georgetown's Post said.

If America Online were to block access to the Klan's site, for example, Post said it could conceivably argue that "AOL is not a state

Various sites track and counter hate groups online. Among them: HateWatch The Nizkor Project Racisme sur le Net First Amendment Project

but is sort of like a state, having almost a monopoly position, like an airport--privately owned, but the First Amendment would apply. That's why the Krishna people can go there and solicit you."

International laws could complicate matters even further. AOL and CompuServe have been investigated in Germany on charges of inciting racial hatred, a crime in that country, by allowing access to a site housed on a California server and operated by a neo-Nazi in Toronto.

A report by a special investigator to the United Nations Human Rights Commission released last month stated that racism is increasing worldwide and that the Internet "has already conquered the imagination of the people with a message where those who incite the hatred, the racists and the anti-Semites, all participate."

In the absence of laws regulating online hate speech, Netizens are doing what they always have done when controversies arise in cyberspace: regulate themselves.

Last summer, Usenet subscribers voted down a proposal create a newsgroup for the discussion of "white power" music, according to Michael Handler of the Usenet Volunteer Votetakers. The rec.music.white-power discussion group was first proposed by Milton Kleim, a Canadian, as a way to share ideas on a genre of music that has racist and nationalist themes.

Handler reported that there were 33,033 no votes and 592 yes votes. But the balloting served only to raise new concerns about censorship, giving rise to a proposal for another newsgroup called talk.politics.national-socialism that would allow a forum for Netizens of all political views.

"You can't look at the proposition of imposing restrictions on online companies in a vacuum," said Steve Heaton, vice president and general counsel of CompuServe. "You've got to look at the entire context: Do we have the right party here making the decisions? Do you want Congress, the media, or companies like CompuServe to do this?"

In the end, Heaton said, only one thing matters: "You need to have a principled approach."