Communication `139B: Law, Communication, and Freedom of Expression
Spring 2002

 

Paper assignment #2

length: 3-4 pages
due: Monday, May 20

 

Godwin called the Net "the newest frontier for the exercise of freedom of expression." We have since raised concerns that trouble his optimism. While there may be relatively few legal constraints limiting online speech, we've also found that speech is "regulated" in all sorts of non-legal ways, and that speech has different dimensions that are each consequential for what gets said and to whom. These include:

- the dynamics of publication and the economic arrangements that govern it -
- access to the network or to what is said on it -
- the constraints built into the technology and the code that drives it -
- the ways of assuring the credibility of speakers and the reliability of information -

 

What do you see as the biggest threat to free speech on the Net?

[You may choose one of the aspects listed above, if you like, or you may describe your own. It can be a concept, like these are, or it can be something more specific, like "filtering software" or "the digital divide" -- as long as you analyze it with an eye for its conceptual features.]

Describe the threat in detail and the concerns involved. Specifically...

* what kinds of risks does it pose? why is it a danger to the freedom of speech? to what or whom is it a danger?

* how is it similar and different on the Net than for non-Net speech?

* what should be done about it, and what are the risks of intervening?

 

Use the readings from the second third of the course (since the last paper was due) to make your argument. In particular, I'd suggest thinking in relation to Sunstein, Lessig, Godwin, and Poster.