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[Prev| Next| Index ] 2/23/96, cjackson@scaffold.com, Beltsville, MD USA
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...
By Chris Jackson, cjackson@scaffold.com.
The Internet has the potential to bring a disparate world
together so that we can celebrate its diversity. The Internet and
the World Wide Web in particular makes communication and
information exchange so simple that existing borders are breaking
down. What is beautiful to me may not appeal to others and vice
versa. What is offensive to me may be art to another, but who am
I to make that decision?
With the vague decency standards in the recently passed
Communications Decency Act (CDA) that potential is dramatically
curtailed because now a moral judgement of the quality of speech
has to be made so that no individual or group is offended (or law
broken). This creates a situation in which different political
groups can apply "filters" to what their populations can read. It
prevents people from thinking and making judgements on their own
and that is always a negative reaction.
I don't want to see children hurt or listen to hate speech, but
if "indecent" or "patently offensive" speech is restricted, then
what is next? What about democratic political discussion? What
about religious freedom? Technology can solve the filter problem
giving consumers a choice of what they are exposed to, but
government is treading on dangerous ground to attempt to regulate
the available material on a medium that crosses borders. Which
government will be next to restrict something from their
population?
I don't want to live in a bland, intolerant, politically correct
world....
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