All Digital Media Deserve Maximum First Amendment Protection

The next President must be a strong and vocal advocate for:

• Expanding Reno’s reach in the coming years and decades; and
• Not messing with Section 230!

Last week, Congress passed a host of new child protection laws that threaten free expression; some of those laws have never even been reviewed by a congressional committee.

In order to preserve free speech and protect children online, the next President and Congress should take specific steps, including the following:

• defend the Supreme Court ruling that affords the Internet the highest level of constitutional protection for free speech;
• promote education and parental empowerment as the most effective means to safeguard kids online;
• protect the ability of online service and application providers to innovate, by preserving their immunity from responsibility for content posted by others;
• protect the right of bloggers and other individual Americans to engage in robust political speech online without being burdened by campaign finance regulations.

Protecting Children Online Means Educating Them and Empowering Their Parents

The next President must:

• Reject Congressional or agency proposals that would unconstitutionally stifle online speech, even if presented in the name of protecting children; and
• Support funding for the development of technological parental empowerment tools and “media literacy” curricula for both parents and children.

<snip>

Keeping the Internet Free For a New Generation of Speakers
The Internet is at a crossroads. Down one path lies a future where digital technology enhances constitutional freedoms; spurs innovations in expression and entrepreneurship; and fulfills its ultimate promise of connecting and empowering the world. Down the other? A future where the Internet is turned against users; where government spying runs unchecked, and where innovation is stifled by a closed and locked system, controlled by a handful of entrenched players. The next president will play a key role in determining which path we take. This is the second in a series of entries over the next couple weeks about the critical technology and civil liberties choices facing the next president of the United States. Our complete transition guide for next president is available online.

Sometimes I just want to grab our government leaders by their collective collar and yell: "What part of 'free' in 'free speech' don't you understand?!" when it comes to the issue of digital communication being afforded the same First Amendment protection as traditional print media.


The next President should not shy away from this issue or follow the easy path toward demagogy. He should set out a public vision that embraces and celebrates the Reno decision as the Internet's very own Bill of Rights and promote strategies that empower Internet users to make their own choices for their families about content controls.

The next president should:

• Affirm that the Internet is subject to the highest level of constitutional protection for free speech, and send a clear message that he will veto any legislation that aims to undermine that standard.

• Promote the empowerment of families to control what kids do online through support for Internet literacy programs and for continued innovation in the development of technological tools for voluntary use by parents (filters, monitoring software, etc.).

• Defend technological innovation by ensuring that online service and application providers retain their immunity from responsibility for content posted by others.

• Protect political speech by ensuring that bloggers and other individual speakers aren't burdened by campaign finance regulations intended for much larger entities.

• Strongly enforce our laws against child pornography.

<snip>