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Superhighway Blockade

February 1st will be remembered as "Black Thursday" on the Internet. Ignoring howls of protest from many groups, Congress on Thursday passed a sweeping telecommunications bill that includes Internet censorship provisions that flagrantly violate the First Amendment.
Under the terms of the bill, anyone who posts e-mail, distributes or transmits material that is "indecent" may be punished by a $250,000 fine and a prison term of up to two years. This will force Internet providers to censor private and public messages, in effect to make these providers deputized agents of Big Brother.
There are other, better ways to ensure that young people do not receive "indecent" material. This legislation establishes big-government censorship that will criminalize free speech on the Internet, effectively restricting expression to that which is appropriate for children. This bill, for a Congress that says it wants government out of people's lives, represents the most extreme form of hypocrisy.

Winston Weeks
Posted on the Internet

Net Happiness

Editor: I've just found your paper on the Web and I have to say that I'm really glad to have such easy and readable access to alternative news from the states (and specifically the Northwest).
Good job.

Michael Carroll
Northwest expat in Tokyo



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Contents on this page were published in the February/March, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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