Volume 11 Issue 1

Casualty of Cyberspace – Free Speech?

DORIS BOZIN*

The explosion of Internet usage has provided users with avenues to purchase products and services, invest monies and explore issues as personal as sexuality, religion and politics. This explosion has been accompanied by many problematic issues, including whether there should be laws restricting freedom of speech on the Internet.

Of course, how a nation views what free speech is, and whether it should be regulated, is determined by the fundamental core values of that society and the political framework in which it works.

Inevitably nations will attempt to apply their existing free speech standards to the Internet through national and international legislative and political initiatives. It is within this context that this article will compare how the United States and Germany have been grappling with this issue.

The analysis will find that both the United States and Germany attempt to restrict speech on the Internet with different levels of effectiveness. More importantly, domestic laws which normally operate within the geographical territory of United States and Germany, may be within the freewheeling world of cyberspace, where there are virtually no geographical limitations.

Finally, the article suggests that the international community will need to take the lead in regulating the Internet, to strike a balance between protecting children accessing online pornography, defamation, encryption and hate speech, and providing legislative relief to injured parties.