Will Globalization Kill Free Speech?

The First Amendment May Require New Limits in a More Interconnected World

U.S. Supreme Court justices are not supposed to say anything interesting outside of the Court, but in 2010 Justice Stephen Breyer was asked in a rare TV appearance if he thought a Florida pastor had a First Amendment right to burn a Quran.

First, Breyer cited the late Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ old line about not having the right to cry fire in a crowded theater. Then, he asked some interesting questions: What does that proverbial theater look like in our hyperlinked world? And what is our era’s equivalent of …

by Andrés Martinez | January 26, 2015

Can a Hashtag Bring My Brother Home?

Americans Take Social Media Campaigns for Granted. But After My Brother Was Kidnapped in the Gambia, Our Family Got on Twitter.

by Juka Ceesay | September 19, 2014

Here’s something I could never type in my home country: #FreeAlhagieAndEbou.

This hashtag is part of my family’s effort—which includes calls to the State Department, the FBI, and the White House …

Was Fred Phelps Democracy’s Necessary Evil?

You Don’t Have to Like the Man or the Westboro Baptist Church, But Their Antics Strengthened the First Amendment for All of Us

by Joseph Russomanno | March 26, 2014

It has been written that the safeguards of liberty have often been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. If that is true—and the facts support the premise—then the …

Oh, What a Crummy Web We Might Weave

If We Don’t Get Serious About Protecting Our Digital Spaces, We’ll Get the Internet We Deserve

February 9, 2012

In 1997, Rebecca MacKinnon–who was at CNN’s Beijing bureau at the time–was having dinner with Chinese friends when she told them about a book she was reading. The book was …

Cyberspace Isn’t a Place

So Ideas Of a Sheriff Are Off-Base

by Julian Sanchez | February 8, 2012

In the early days of the mass Internet, John Perry Barlow–the Grateful Dead lyricist turned digital activist–penned an influential “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” proclaiming the birth of a …

[BLANK] the Police?

A Discussion of How, If At All, the Internet Should Be Patrolled

February 7, 2012

Many of us realize how much we take the Internet’s current qualities for granted only when some party proposes to change them. Perhaps you felt you were just getting a …

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