Freedom of Expression

Reporters:
Santos, Natalie Brigette
Suravilla, Shaira Janine
 Topic Outline:
• First Amendment Rights
- Obscene Speech and Defamation
 Topic Outline:
• First Amendment Rights
- Obscene Speech and Defamation
 Topic Outline:
• First Amendment Rights
- Obscene Speech and Defamation
Topic Outline:
• First Amendment Rights
- Obscene Speech and Defamation

• Freedom of Expression Issues

- Internet Filtering
- Children’s Internet Protection Act
- Anonymity and Hate Speech
- Pornography
Internet
- broad accessibility
- exchange of news, ideas, opinions, rumors and
information.
- easy and inexpensive way for speaker to send
message
- provides great influence
Freedom of Expression
• is a fundamental human right. It
also underpins most other rights
and allows them to flourish. The
right to speak your mind freely
on important issues in society,
access information and hold the
powers that be to account, plays a
vital role in the healthy
development process of any
society
First Amendment Rights
• US constitution protects freedom of
expression and religion.
• Numerous court broadened definition of
speech
- non-verbal
- visual
- symbolic forms of expression
First Amendment Rights
• US constitution protects freedom of
expression and religion.
• Numerous court broadened definition of
speech
- non-verbal
- visual
- symbolic forms of expression
First Amendment Rights
The Following Speech may NOT be
protected by the government:
• Obscene Speech
• Defamation
• Incitement of Panic
• Incitement to Crime
• Fighting Words
• Sedition
Speech is considered as Obscene and not protected
under First Amendment if three conditions
are met:
1st Condition
• Whether "the average person, applying contemporary community
standards", would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to
the prurient interest,
Speech is considered as Obscene and not protected
under First Amendment if three conditions
are met:
2nd Condition
• Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way,
sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by
applicable state law,
Speech is considered as Obscene and not protected
under First Amendment if three conditions
are met:
2nd Condition
• Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks
serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Speech is considered as Obscene and not protected
under First Amendment if three conditions
are met:
3rd Condition
• Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks
serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Defamation
• A publication of a statement of alleged
fact that is false and that harms another
person.

Freedom of expression is restricted

When your expression causes:
• Untrue
• Causes harm to another person
Slander
• Oral defamatory statement

Libel
• written defamatory statement
Freedom of Expression Issues

Controlling access to information on

• Internet
• Anonymity
• defamation
• hate speech
• pornography
Controlling access to information
on internet
• Internet is accessible to children
• Software manufactures invented
software to filter access
Internet Filtering

• Installed on pc along with web browser to

block access to certain web sites that
contain inappropriate or offensive material.

• Used by Network Administrators to restrict

access.
Internet Filtering
Internet Filters:
• Net Nanny
• Cybersitter
• Cyber Patrol
• SurfGuard
• HateFilter

You can download this from

Anti-Defamation Leagues
Anonymity
• The state or quality of being
anonymous
Anonymous expression
• one to state one’s opinions without revealing
one’s identity
• Played an important role in the early
formation of the United State

• anonymous communication can be a tool to

commit illegal or unethical activities.
• American Revolution
• Patriots
• pamphlets
• Leaflets
• England
• Variety of laws
• restrict anonymous political
commentary
• Guilty of breaking -> harsh
punishment
• Whippings
• Hangings
• 1735 – John Zenger
• Prosecuted for seditious libel
• Jurors refused to convict Zenger in
what is considered one of the
defining moments in the history of
freedom of the press
• 1776 - Thomas Paine
• Influential writer
• Philosopher
• Statesman of the American
Revolutionary War Era
• “Common Sense” – pamphlet
• 500,000 copies
• 1958 – case of NAACP vs. Alabama
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• 200 years
• Supreme Court to render rulings that address anonymity as an
aspect of the Bill of Rights
• Stated in the early America
• First rulings
• The court believed that members could be subjected to threats
and retaliation if the list were disclosed
• Disclosure would restrict a member’s right to freely associate in
violation of the first amendment
Anonymous Remailers
• Legitimate need for some internet activities
• Anonymous remailer service
• computer program strips the
originating address from the
message
• Then forwards the message to its
intended recipient
• Individual
• Chatroom
• Newsgroup
• Either with no address or a
fictitious one
Anonymous Remailers
• Encryption and routing through multiple
remailers to provide a virtually
untraceable level of anonymity
• Keeps one’s communication anonymous

• Unethical messages by others or even

illegal in some states or countries has
spurred controversy
John Doe Lawsuits
• For which the true identity of the defendant is temporarily
unknown
• Common in internet libel cases
• Where the defendant is unknown because he/she communicates using a
pseudonym or anonymously
• Corporations
• Proponents of such lawsuits point out
that most John Doe Lawsuits are
based on serious allegations of
wrongdoing, such as libel or
disclosure of confidential information
Defamation and Hate Speech
• United States • Persistent or malicious harassment
• “speech” aimed at a specific individual can be
• Annoying prosecuted under the law
• Critical
• Demeaning • Defamation and Hate Speech
• Offensive
• Is the ease of anonymous
• Enjoys protection under the first communication over the internet
amendment
• Legal Recourse
• When hate speech turns into
clear threats and intimidation
against specific individual
Example:
• 1998 former student was sentenced to one year in prison for sending
death threats to Asian-American students at the University of
California, Irvine. His e-mail was signed “Asian hater,” and in his
letters, he said he would make it his life career to find and kill every
Asian personally.

Example: Topic Scenario

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aPzjQHq5ws&t=79s&app
=desktop

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=21Bgcf4XjaE
Thank you!