Unit Three

Reading Selection Two:

Freedom of Expression on the Internet

By John Chaffee

　　So here you are in the electronic age, happily sending emails to your friends and coworkers, posting messages on school or company network bulletin boards, and chatting away in a computer service forum with buddies who share interests with you. It's fast, it's modern, it's easy, and it's the true manifestation of free speech, to communicate with anyone you want to, whenever you want to, by whatever means you want to use. Suddenly, you find a baby photo of yourself at age two, in the bathtub, posted on the Internet. Or a scribbled complaint about your work supervisor, sent via email to a coworker to vent your feelings after a bad day at the office, is forwarded by who-knows-who to your boss, with a copy to the Human Resources Department.* Or your school email box is bombarded with junk mail,

advertising everything from used computer parts to XXX rates magazines. Or the reference materials you found on the Internet and cited in your recent term paper turn out to be inaccurate and misleading. Or the poem you struggled to finish and sent to a friend turns up published in an online magazine under someone else's name.* Who regulates these abuses? What has happened to your privacy? What does this freewheeling use of the information superhighway mean? Who "owns" cyberspace? Who protects the unwary from junk?T
　　It's important to understand that all of these computer online tools—email, chat rooms, message boards—are relatively new and still being developed. The regulations that govern them are unclear and still emerging. While informal rules among computer users are fairly common, institutions such

as schools, businesses, and the government are taking a firmer and more serious approach to regulation. While photocopying a chain letter and remailing it to a hundred people can be done, it also can be a costly and tedious process. Forwarding an email to that same hundred unsuspecting souls can be accomplished in a few seconds, with relatively no apparent cost. Thus that kind of behavior, known as "spamming," is considered taboo in cyberspace. Just as legislation has been passed in some regions to prevent advertisers from clogging customers' fax machines with junk mail, regulators are also considering ways to prevent mass mailings from proliferating on the Internet. While some folks cry that this is a violation of their freedom of speech, the recipients of this endless electronic trash are yelling equally loudly for protection from the misuse of their phone lines, online accounts, and personal space.T
　　Who actually owns the Web? No one. As the connections to more and more parties expand rapidly, control weakens. Before you post a message or picture on a community electronic bulletin board, think about who will see it, who can copy it, and where it might end up. Privacy is almost nonexistent in cyberspace. Do you really want your future employer to see that picture of you? Do you really want your story about a stressful day fighting crowds and dealing with interoffice politics or about a particularly tough professor to be seen by everyone—five years from now? And the affection conveyed in the invitation to your boyfriend or girlfriend to spend the weekend at your family's house over the holidays—do you really want it sent to everyone in town?T
　　Many companies and schools now have newcomers read and sign statements that spell out the institution's policy on use of their computers. They caution folks to remember that anything written via email belongs to the organization and not to the individual. Since the computers and their electronic services belong to the school or company, its representatives feel that whatever is written or said via their communications systems also belongs to them. Violation of acceptable behavior online or abuse of email for personal use can sometimes result in the expulsion or termination of the user privileges of the offender. Are you thinking of using

the school's email service to send out 400 invitations to your high school reunion and asking for RSVPs to be sent to your student email box? Think again: the outgoing and incoming mail can slow down the school's service, and your email inbox may not be able to accommodate that amount of mail. Are you thinking of asking your parents if you can use their company service instead? Such an act could be considered theft of time and equipment. After all, it takes time for someone to create and send out the email as well as read through and print or copy and save the responses. The flux of incoming mail activity can also add wear and tear to the software and computer server,* which might have limited space and processing capability.T
　　Can your supervisor read your email and have you disciplined for being annoyed when corresponding with a friend?* Is this an invasion of privacy on the manager's part, or is it a misuse of company tools on yours? When you go into an online chat room, and the host warns you that your language is inappropriate for the group, can you angrily assert your right to free speech—or does the service have a right to restrict such behavior for the overall benefit of its customers? Do you have any recourse against the person who created a Web site that resembled a formal library and from which you quoted facts and figures, all of which turned out to be fake? Or is cyberspace an open canvas where anyone can write anything at anytime and where you must learn to check and double-check their accuracy before taking any words at face value?* T
　　

It's important that you realize that the fast-paced electronic environment is not perfect and is ever-changing. You need to know the game plan, follow the rules and be cautious when using any of its features—whether it be email sent and received, bulletin boards read and messages posted, or data found on home pages of so-called libraries and other institutions, as well as those that belong to individuals. And so, while the First Amendment will guarantee your right to say what you want, when you want, to whomever you want, by whatever means you want, your obligation is to speak freely with respect, common sense, and by thinking FIRST to protect your interests and the interests of those who may venture to see what you have to say. In other words, you have to think critically about the complex issues of freedom and privacy, rights and responsibility,* as they relate to every area of life, including the expanding universe of the Internet.T

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