HOW OTHER NATIONS BALANCE FREE SPEECH STORY BEHIND THE NEWS
Globally democratic nations try to balance the right of free speech of their citizens in cyber space with concerns regarding child pornography, hate speech and violence against minorities.
The US has a robust legal framework that supports free expression rights both online and offline, and the country does not typically prosecute individuals for online speech, according to Freedom House report. In 1997, the US Supreme Court held that Internet speech was entitled to the highest form of protec- tion under the constitution, and lower courts have consistently struck down attempts to regulate online content. Federal law in US enable companies to develop Internet applications and websites without fear that they will be held liable for content posted by users, as per the Freedom House report. However legal rules that apply to other spheres of life have been extended to the Internet, including on child pornography, harassing or defamatory comments and publication of confidential information. Advertisement, production, distribution, and possession of child pornogra- phy — on the Internet and in all other media — is prohibited under federal law and can carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
WikiLeaks, which in 2010 published US classified documents faced cutoff of service by no n-govern-ment entities, including Amazon’s data storage service and EveryDNS,
SUNDAY | 29 MARCH 2015 | HYDERABAD Wikileaks’ domain name service provider. These companies that severed ties with WikiLeaks claimed to be acting independently and without government influence. But it is a fact that their decisions came amid fierce public criticism of WikiLeaks by executive branch officials and prominent members of Congress. In the UK, Director of Public Prosecutions in 2013 published guidelines for prose
cuting cases involving communications sent via social media.
According to Freedom House these guidelines include prosecution of communications that may be perceived as credible threats, specifically target an individual or individuals, or amount to a breach of a court order. By contrast, communications that are offensive, indecent, obscene, or false, are unlikely to be subject to prosecution. The guidelines have been applied in at least one incident to protect victims of abuse or trolling on social media platforms. In late 2013, campaigners for the retention of a female figure’s image on UK bank notes became the subjects of extensive harassment online. Some of the abusers were identified, and in February 2014 a man was charged under section 127 of the Communications Act for his involvement via Twitter, and later sentenced to 18 weeks in jail. In the UK, social media users have been investigated or charged for interfering with the administration of justice. Although France has a strong record of an open and accessible Internet, over the past few years the country has come under some criticism from online activists and free speech advocates.