Home : Free Speech : Internet Censorship

FCC Proposes Net Neutrality Rules (09/22/2009)
WASHINGTON – On Monday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed expanded “net neutrality” guidelines that would require Internet service providers to treat all content and applications equally, regardless of their origin or messaging. The American Civil Liberties Union strongly supports these principles put forth by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, which would offer much needed First Amendment protections. The FCC is also calling on operators to make their management practices transparent to users, offering greater consumer protections.

ACLU Sues To Stop Tennessee Schools From Censoring Gay Educational Web Sites (05/19/2009)
NASHVILLE, TN – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Tennessee sued two Tennessee school districts in federal court today, charging the schools are unconstitutionally blocking students from accessing online information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, Knox County Schools and as many as 105 other school districts in Tennessee use Internet filtering software to block Web sites containing pro-LGBT speech, but not Web sites touting so-called "reparative therapy" and "ex-gay" ministries. The "LGBT" filter is not used to block sites containing pornography, which are filtered under a different category, but it does block the sites of many well-known LGBT organizations including Parents, Families, And Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

Christiansburg Blogger May Criticize Developer's Dirt Pile (04/10/2009)
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, VA – The Virginia Supreme Court has rejected developer Roger W. Woody's appeal of a Montgomery County Circuit Court's decision to dismiss his libel suit against Terry Ellen Carter, a Christiansburg resident who complained on her website about a large mound of dirt on one of Woody's properties.

Supreme Court Refuses To Revive Online Censorship Law (01/21/2009)
WASHINGTON – In a clear victory for free speech, the Supreme Court has announced that it will not hear the government's appeal of a ban on the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), the federal law that would criminalize constitutionally protected speech on the Internet.

ACLU of Pennsylvania Urges Court To Uphold Free-Speech Ruling In Student MySpace Case (12/08/2008)
PHILADELPHIA – The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania will urge a federal appeals court on Wednesday to uphold a 2007 trial court ruling that the Hermitage School District violated a student's First Amendment rights when it punished him for posting, from a home computer during non-school hours, a parody profile lampooning his principal on the social networking Web site MySpace. The case, Layshock v. Hermitage School District, raises important and unresolved issues about minors' free-speech rights, the reach of school officials' authority, and parents' rights to direct and control their children's upbringing, especially inside the home.

ACLU Sues To Protect Broward Student's Free Speech In Web 2.0 World (12/08/2008)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed suit today on behalf of Katherine Evans, a former Pembroke Pines Charter high school student, to protect her freedom of speech. In November 2007, Evans was suspended for three days for engaging in protected off-campus speech. Principal Peter Bayer's actions came at a high price for Evans, an advanced placement student in her critical senior year.

ACLU Calls On Broadcasters To Stop Stifling Political Discourse On YouTube (10/20/2008)
SAN FRANCISCO - Television networks should stop silencing political speech on the Internet, according to a letter the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Northern California and a coalition of public interest groups sent to four major television networks today. Several broadcasting companies have sent letters to YouTube demanding that they take down videos containing short clips of news coverage even when those clips are "fair use" and therefore legally posted.

Court Upholds Privacy Advocate's Right to Post Public Records on Website (08/22/2008)
Richmond, VA - Federal Court Judge Robert E. Payne today ruled that Virginia's new law prohibiting the publication of Social Security Numbers, including those taken from government websites available to the public, is unconstitutional as applied to the website of privacy rights advocate B.J. Ostergren.

ACLU Calls FCC Penalty Against Comcast a Step Forward Toward Net Freedom (08/01/2008)
Washington, DC – Today the Federal Communications Commission is expected to penalize Comcast for violating the FCC’s principles to ensure open access to the Internet.

Federal Court Once Again Upholds Ban On Unconstitutional Internet Censorship Law (07/22/2008)
PHILADELPHIA - In a clear victory for free speech today, a federal court once again upheld a ban on a law that would criminalize constitutionally protected speech on the Internet. The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the unconstitutional Child Online Protection Act (COPA) on behalf of a broad coalition of writers, artists and health educators who use the internet to communicate constitutionally protected speech.

ACLU Urges Court To Uphold Ban On Unconstitutional Censorship Law (06/10/2008)
PHILADELPHIA - The American Civil Liberties Union is in court today, once again urging the courts to uphold a ban on a law that criminalizes constitutionally protected speech on the Internet. The Child Online Protection Act (COPA) would impose draconian criminal sanctions, with penalties of up to $50,000 per day and up to six months imprisonment, for online material acknowledged as protected for adults but deemed "harmful to minors."

ACLU Skeptical of Senate Report on "Homegrown" Terrorism (05/08/2008)
Washington, DC – After Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a report on Islamic homegrown terrorism today, the American Civil Liberties Union strongly urged Congress to use caution when moving forward on related legislation, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (S. 1959). The report, "Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorism Threat," is based on findings from hearings held by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The ACLU and nearly twenty other groups sent a memo to the committee outlining concerns with the report, most notably the free speech implications of labeling the internet as a "weapon" and the unfair singling out of one religious group as possible "extremists."

ACLU Commends Net Neutrality Hearing (05/06/2008)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union commends Chairman Edward Markey (D-MA) of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet for holding a hearing today on the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008 (H.R. 5353), legislation designed to keep the Internet free for open discourse.

Congress Must Act to Keep the Internet Free from Censorship (03/11/2008)
Washington, DC – Testifying today before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on net neutrality, the director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, Caroline Fredrickson, urged Congress to act to safeguard free speech on the Internet. “Congress should act to protect the rights of all Internet users to send and receive lawful content free of censorship from government or business,” Fredrickson said. “Restoring meaningful rules that protect Internet users from corporate censorship is vital to the future of free speech on the Internet.”

MAINE ACTIVISTS RENEW CALL FOR NET NEUTRALITY (02/25/2008)
PORTLAND –Mainers who are actively working to ensure that the Internet is available to all users without discrimination travel to Boston today for a Federal Communications Commission hearing on the issue of network neutrality, the principle of non-discrimination on the Internet. The FCC hearing will address Comcast’s practice of blocking peer-to-peer traffic on its network, and the FCC has requested comment on Verizon Communications’ recent blocking of text messaging.

ACLU Calls for Congressional Hearings on Net Neutrality (10/05/2007)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union today called on Congress to hold hearings to explore recent anti-consumer actions taken by several Internet service providers that infringed on users’ freedom of speech and access to lawful information. The ACLU believes Congress must take action to restore the network neutrality protections that were in place before 2005 and ensure the Internet remains vibrant, innovative and free of discrimination.

Verizon’s Blocking Content is a Cry for Government Action on Net Neutrality, Free Speech Advocates are Feeling the Big Chill (09/27/2007)
Washington, DC –- The American Civil Liberties Union said that Verizon’s actions to block political speech in text messages do not bode well for free speech. While the ACLU appreciates that Verizon immediately changed course and allowed the speech after public outcry, Director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office Caroline Fredrickson said, “this is exactly why we need the Government’s leadership on net neutrality for a free and open marketplace of ideas to continue to thrive in this country.”

Diverse Coalition Announces Support for Net Neutrality Legislation in Maine (05/08/2007)
PORTLAND – The Maine Civil Liberties Union and other free speech advocates today joined state business leaders and computer professionals to call on the Maine Legislature to keep the Internet neutral and protect the freedom of individuals and small companies to post content online. The coalition is urging legislators to pass a bill known as “An Act to Protect Network Neutrality,” or LD 1675.

ACLU Victorious in Defense of Online Free Speech (03/22/2007)
NEW YORK - A federal district court today ruled in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union’s longstanding challenge to an Internet censorship law, ACLU v. Gonzales. Although the law was enacted in 1998, courts immediately forbade the government from enforcing it because it suppressed a substantial amount of constitutionally protected speech.

California Supreme Court Ruling Strengthens Protections for Online Free Speech, ACLU Says (11/20/2006)
SAN FRANCISCO -- In a victory for free speech on the Internet, the California Supreme Court ruled today that no provider or user of an interactive computer service may be held liable for putting material on the Internet that was written by someone else. In doing so, the Court overruled an earlier decision by the Court of Appeal.