The Offensive Internet

by Levmore, Saul; Nussbaum, Martha C.

• ISBN13: 9780674064317
• ISBN10: 0674064313
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-07
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

The Internet has been romanticized as a zone of freedom. The alluring combination of sophisticated technology with low barriers to entry and instantaneous outreach to millions of users has mesmerized libertarians and communitarians alike. Lawmakers have joined the celebration, passing the Communications Decency Act, which enables Internet Service Providers to allow unregulated discourse without danger of liability, all in the name of enhancing freedom of speech. But an unregulated Internet is a breeding ground for offensive conduct. At last we have a book that begins to focus on abuses made possible by anonymity, freedom from liability, and lack of oversight. The distinguished scholars assembled in this volume, drawn from law and philosophy, connect the absence of legal oversight with harassment and discrimination. Questioning the simplistic notion that abusive speech and mobocracy are the inevitable outcomes of new technology, they argue that current misuse is the outgrowth of social, technological, and legal choices. Seeing this clearly will help us to be better informed about our options. In a field still dominated by a frontier perspective, this book has the potential to be a real game changer. Armed with example after example of harassment in Internet chat rooms and forums, the authors detail some of the vile and hateful speech that the current combination of law and technology has bred. The facts are then treated to analysis and policy prescriptions. Read this book and you will never again see the Internet through rose-colored glasses.

Author Biography

Saul Levmore is the William B. Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Internet and Its Problems
Speech, Privacy, and Reputation on the Internet	p. 15
Civil Rights in Our Information Age	p. 31
The Internet's Anonymity Problem	p. 50
Objectification and Internet Misogyny	p. 68
Reputation
Believing False Rumors	p. 91
Reputation Regulation: Disclosure and the Challenge of Clandestinely Commensurating Computing	p. 107
Youthful Indiscretion in an Internet Age	p. 124
Academic Administrators and the Challenge of Social-Networking Websites	p. 140
Speech
Cleaning Cyber-Cesspools: Google and Free Speech	p. 155
Privacy, the First Amendment, and the Internet	p. 174
Foul Language: Some Ruminations on Cohen v. California	p. 195
Privacy
Collective Privacy	p. 217
Privacy on Social Networks: Norms, Markets, and Natural Monopoly	p. 237
Notes	p. 259
Contributors	p. 287
Index	p. 291
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