The Blue Ribbon Campaign for Online Free Speech

THE BLUE RIBBON CAMPAIGN for Online Freedom of Speech, Press and
Association

* American Civil Liberties Union * Center for Demorcacy & Technology *
* Electronic Frontier Foundation *
* Electronic Privacy Information Center * Voters' Telecom Watch *

Last updated: 8:30pm PST, Feb. 20, 1996.

	Blue Ribbon Intro	Blue Ribbon Graphics
Fed. US Update	Global & State-Level Update	Other Blue Ribbon Pages
Archive	Sites That Could be Banned	Skeptical?

Blue Ribbon Campaign Introduction

A blue ribbon is chosen as the symbol for the preservation of basic civil rights in the electronic world. The blue ribbon is of course insprired by the yellow POW/MIA and red AIDS/HIV ribbons, and also by the various (U.S.) Second Amendment, Israel awareness, and public land usage rights blue ribbons, the breast cancer pink ribbon, etc.*

EFF and other civil liberties groups ask that a blue ribbon be worn or displayed to show support for the essential human right of free speech. This fundamental building block of free society, affirmed by the U.S. Bill of Rights in 1791, and by the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, has been sacrificed in the 1996 Telecom Bill.

The blue ribbon will be a way to raise awareness of these issues, from locally to globally, and for the quiet voice of reason to be heard.

The voice of reason knows that free speech doesn't equate to sexual harassment, abuse of children, or the breeding of hatred or intolerance.

We insist that any material that's legal in bookstores, newspapers, or public libraries must be legal online.

See below for info on how to get Blue Ribbon graphics for your WWW pages.

Blue Ribbon Graphics

All Web users are strongly encouraged to place a blue ribbon graphic on their servers, such as the ones below. (Click on each to download if your browser requires this.)

If you would like to point your Blue Ribbon icon at EFF's Blue Ribbon page (the page you are reading now), you can add this HTML Anchor to your homepage (or a similar one, pointing to another Blue Ribbon Site).

Many other versions are available, including borderless, transparent, grey and black backrounds, smaller versions, an outline version, and a textless version for incorporation into larger banners (as a standalone icon, please use the versions with text, so people have some idea that there IS a blue ribbon campaign and what is about when they first encounter it - not everyone has a color monitor, so the verbal name of the campaign is important to pass around.) Thank you for your support and activism, and remember - it's YOUR rights you are fighting for! Wear a real blue ribbon, so people ask you what it's all about.

If you are not sure why you need to participate in the Blue Ribbon Campaign and stand up for your free speech, or uncertain how your rights are threatened, please see our Internet Censorship Legislation Alerts Page

Other Blue Ribbon Pages

Here are some other sites providing Blue Ribbon pages. You might wish to refer people to one of these sites as well as or in place of ours. This will help reduce load on our system, and help spread the word into other online communities (e.g. via having someone within each community provide a blue ribbon page, rather than everyone having to figure out who we are and how we relate to their interests) This is *not* a list of people supporting the blue ribbon campaign and putting blue ribbons on their WWW pages - there are already thousands!

For a humor break, see the CensorU Movement (CUM) www pages - a parody of the theocratic right, with its own red pro-censorship ribbon.

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