1
Confronting the Internet's Dark Side:
Moral and Social Responsibility on the Free Highway
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Washington DC. And NY: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Cambridge University Press,
2015
ISBN 9781107105591
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In Memory of Sarah Cohen (1930-2011) who shaped my thinking and paved me the
way
Not a single day passes
Without seeing your faces
Memories come running
Different periods, different places.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1. Historical Framework
Chapter 2. Technological Framework
Chapter 3. Theoretical Framework
Chapter 4. Agent’s Responsibility
Chapter 5. Readers’ Responsibility
Chapter 6. Responsibility of ISPs and Web Hosting Services Part I: Rational and Principles
Chapter 7. Responsibility of ISPs and Web Hosting Services Part II: Applications
Chapter 8. State Responsibility
Chapter 9. Responsibility of the International Community
Conclusion
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Index
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Introduction
Know from whence you came in order to know where you are going.
Preliminaries
The Internet burst into our lives in the early 1990s without much preparation or planning,
and changed them forever. It has affected virtually every aspect of society. It is a macro
system of interconnected private and public spheres: household, literary, military,
academic, business and government networks. The Internet has produced major leaps
forward in human productivity and has changed the way people work, study and interact
with each other. The mix of open standards, diverse networks, and the growing ubiquity of
digital devices makes the Internet a revolutionary force that undermines traditional media
such as newspapers, broadcasting, and telephone systems, and that challenges existing
regulatory institutions based on national boundaries.
The Internet's design and raison d'être are open architecture, freedom of expression,
and neutral network of networks. In the prevailing western liberal tradition, freedom of
expression is perceived as a fundamental human right and the free flow of information
should be uninhibited. This is especially true for the Internet. But soon enough people
began to exploit the Net's massive potential to enhance partisan interests, some of which
are harmful and anti-social. Given that the Internet has been part of our lives for a
relatively short time, the discussions concentrate on the social production, and the
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technological, architectural, geographical aspects of the Net (Yochai Benkler,1 Manuel
Castells,2 Gary P. Schneider and Jessica Evans,3 Aharon Kellerman,4 Lawrence Lessig,5
James Slevin,6 Jonathan Zittrain,7 to name a few). The discussions about the costs and
harms of such content on the Internet, and how to address them, reflect on the
transnational nature of the Internet and tend to conclude that it is very difficult, some say
virtually impossible, for national authorities to unilaterally implement laws and regulations
that reflect national, rather than global, moral standards (Dick Thornburgh and Herbert S.
Lin).8
1 Yochai B, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2006).
2 Manuel Castells, Communication Power (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), and The Internet Galaxy
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
3 Gary P. Schneider and Jessica Evans, New Perspectives on the Internet: Comprehensive. (Boston: Thomson,
2007).
4 Aharon Kellerman, The Internet on Earth: A Geography of Information (Oxford: WileyBlackwell, 2002).
5 Lawrence Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (New York: Basic Books, 1999); idem, The Future of
Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World (New York: Vintage, 2002); idem, Free Culture: How Big
Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity (New York: Penguin, 2004).
6 James Slevin, The Internet and Society (Oxford: Polity, 2000).
7 Jonathan L. Zittrain, The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008).
8 Dick Thornburgh and Herbert S. Lin, Youth, Pornography, and the Internet (Washington, DC: National
Academy Press, 2002); National Research Council, Global Networks and Local Values: A Comparative Look at
Germany and the United States (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001). For further discussion, see
Robert J. Cavalier (ed.), The Impact of the Internet on Our Moral Lives. (New York: State University of New
York Press, 2005).
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Most Internet users act within the law. Thus, free speech advocates argue that the
collective should not be restricted because of the few who abuse Internet freedom to harm
others. We should not allow the abusers to dictate the rules of the game. But of course we
should fight against those who abuse this freedom. The way to combat problematic speech
is said to be by more speech. Organizations and associations were set up to protect and
promote freedom of expression, freedom of information and privacy on the Internet.9 In the
United States, the land of the First Amendment,10 emphasis is put on education (Robert D.
Atkinson,11 Rep. (Dem.) Rick Boucher,12 Robert Corn-Revere,13 Leslie Harris,14 Tom Head,15
9 Among them are The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), http://cdt.org/ ; The Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF), http://www.eff.org/ ; The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), http://epic.org/
; The Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC), http://gilc.org/ ; The Internet Society, http://www.isoc.org/;
The Association for Progressive Communication, http://www.apc.org; Save the Internet,
http://savetheinternet.com/
10 http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/
11 www.innovationpolicy.org
12 http://www.boucher.house.gov/
13 Robert Corn-Revere, “Caught in the Seamless Web: Does the Internet’s Global Reach Justify Less Freedom
of Speech?,” paper based on amicus brief in Yahoo!, Inc. v. La Ligue Contre Le Racisme Et L’Antisemitisme, Case
No. 01-17424 (9th Cir.); idem, “United States v. American Library Association: A Missed Opportunity for the
Supreme Court to Clarify Application of First Amendment Law to Publicly-Funded Expressive Institutions,” in
Who Rules the Net? (Washington: Cato Institute, 2003).
14 http://www.cdt.org/staff/lharris.php
15 Tom Head (ed.), The Future of the Internet (Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2005).
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Gerson Moreno-Riano,16 Andrea C. Nakaya,17 Michael R. Nelson,18 Tony Rutkowski,19 Adam
Thierer,20 among others21). “Keep the Internet free and open,” reiterates Vint Cerf, Google
vice-president and chief evangelist.22 The dangers of the Internet are recognized but it is
commonly argued that the Free Speech Principle shields all but the most immediately
threatening expression. There is a strong presumption against speech restrictions. As
Michael Nelson said, the Internet helps to mitigate tensions. It conveys information, tell us
about the aims and activities of terrorists and hate mongers, show us how poor their ideas
are.23
The United States tends not to be preemptive in the sphere of freedom of
expression. Among the limited boundaries to free expression on the Net are direct and
16 Gerson Moreno-Riano (Ed.), Tolerance in the Twenty-first Century: prospects and challenges (Lanham, MD.:
Lexington Books, 2006).
17 Andrea C. Nakaya (ed.), Censorship: Opposing Viewpoints (Farmington Hill, MI: Greenhaven, 2005).
18 Michael R. Nelson, “Sovereignty in the Networked World,” in Emerging Internet (Queenstown, MD: Aspen
Institute, 1998).
19 http://www.itu.int/TELECOM/wt95/pressdocs/profiles/rutbio.html
20 Adam Thierer and Clyde Wayne Crews, Who Rules the Net? (Washington DC.: Cato Institute, 2003).
21 Mark A. Shiffrin and Avi Silberschatz, “Web of the free,” The New York Times (October 23, 2005).
22 Alex Fitzpatrick, “Google's Vint Cerf: Keep the Internet Free and Open,” Mashable.com (December 3, 2012),
http://mashable.com/2012/12/03/vint-cerf-open-internet/; “Web pioneer Vint Cerf advocates a free
Internet,” iweek (September 18, 2013), http://www.iweek.co.za/in-the-know/web-pioneer-vint-cerf-
advocates-a-free-internet
23 Interview with Michael Nelson, former IBM Director, Internet Technology and Strategy, Washington DC
(January 31, 2008).
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specific calls for murder ("true threats"),24 child pornography, direct calls for terrorism and
spreading of viruses, and material protected by copyright legislation. Threats of general
nature, hatred, bigotry, racism, instructions how to kill and maim, and how to seduce
children, are all protected forms of speech under the First Amendment. Speech is afforded
protection except when a life-threatening message is directed against identified
individuals.25 Blanket statements expressing hatred toward certain groups are given free
24 A statement is a "true threat' when a reasonable person making the statement would foresee that the
statement would be interpreted by those to whom it is communicated as a serious expression of an intent to
bodily harm or assault. See Planned Parenthood of Columbia/Willamette, Inc. v. Am. Coalition of Life Activists,
290 F.3d 1058, 1080 (9th Cir. 2002). See also Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705 (1969); United States v.
Kelner, 534 F.2d 1020 (2d Cir. 1976); Jennifer E. Rothman, "Freedom of Speech and True Threats," Harvard J.
of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 25, Issue 1 (2001); Anna S. Andrews, " When is a Threat 'Truly' a Threat Lacking
First Amendment Protection? A Proposed True Threats Test to Safeguard Free Speech Rights in the Age of the
Internet," UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy (May 1999); Kenneth L. Karst, “Threats and
Meanings: How the Facts Govern First Amendment Doctrine,” Stanford Law Review, Vol. 58 (March 2006):
1337.
25 In Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, Inc. v. American Coalition of Life Activists, 23 F. Supp. 2d
1182 (D. OR 1999), an Internet site listed the names and home addresses of doctors who performed
abortions. The site called for the doctors to be brought to justice for crimes against humanity. The names of
doctors who had been wounded were listed in gray. Doctors who had been killed by anti-abortionists had
been crossed out. The court found this speech to be threatening and not protected under the First
Amendment. See Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Understanding Words That Wound (Boulder, CO:
Westview, 2004): 127. Another pertinent case is The Secretary, United States Department of Housing and
Urban Development, on behalf of Bonnie Jouhari and Pilar Horton v. Ryan Wilson and ALPHA HQ, before Alan W.
Heifetz, Chief Administrative Law Judge (decided July 19, 2000), available at
http://www.hud.gov/utilities/intercept.cfm?/offices/oalj/cases/fha/pdf/wilson.pdf
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sway, even if individual members of such groups are put at risk.26 Salimipour argued that
government actions “limiting the spread of harmful content should be carefully designed to
ensure that measures taken do not restrict hate or offensive speech on the Internet.”27 This
statement may sound strange to European ears but American courts have followed this
doctrine in cyberspace, affording this form of speech broad protection. Hate is tricky as it is
hard to define.
Promises and Challenges
The Internet contests boundaries to free expression and enlarges the scope of tolerance.
With almost 40% of the world population online, 2.7 billion people,28 the Internet has been
heralded as “the best development in participatory democracy since universal suffrage and
the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed.”29 From the highest national
courts to elementary classrooms around the world, scholars, law-makers, and adolescents
alike take part in “a never-ending worldwide conversation.”30 As individual participants
make connections and share information across the globe, communities form and develop
26 Anti-Defamation League, Combating Extremism in Cyberspace: The Legal Issues Affecting Internet Hate
Speech (New York: ADL, 2000); Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Understanding Words That Wound: 127.
27 Negin Salimipour, “The Challenge of Regulating Hate and Offensive Speech on the Internet,” Southwestern
Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas, Vol. 8 (2001/2002): 395.
28 ICT Fact and Figures (Geneva: International Telecommunication Union, 2013), http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-
D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2013-e.pdf
29 Reid Goldsborough, Leveraging the Internet’s Marketplace of Ideas (mastering computers, available at
www.techdirections.com/html/computing.html)
30 ACLU v. Reno, 929 F. Supp. 824 (1996).
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unhindered by geographical borders, creating new systems of social power and exchange.31
Collaborations never before possible blur at present the edges of the private and public
spheres, challenging traditional constructs of self and community. Even in its infancy, the
Internet as we know it has already proven a wonderful, easy-to-use mechanism to advance
knowledge and learning across the world, to bridge gaps (educational, national, religious,
cultural) and to promote understanding.
It is nearly impossible to comprehend the impact that the colossal pool of
information’s rapid descent has had on our lives and societies. The hurried acceptance of
the Internet in the western world has been accompanied by the controversial realization
that there is no central authority that sets standards for acceptable content on this
network.32 The Internet’s free space is said to be subjected only to obligating technical
protocols and programming language rules. Orthodox liberals celebrate this as a
democratizing, publicly empowering characteristic that will promote intellectual and social
progress, while others see it as a potential tinderbox of unguided lawlessness, whose
messages and influence might unravel significant common values in the social framework
of pluralistic societies.33 The reasons for this situation are historical and structural: While
the early Internet was rooted in the United States, it became global only in its recent phase.
The chaotic structure of the Internet as a complex web of separate nets results in each 31 Howard Rheingold, “The Emerging Wireless Internet Will Both Improve and Degrade Human Life,” in Tom
Head (ed.), The Future of the Internet (Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2005): 22.
32 J. Michael Jaffe, "Riding the Electronic Tiger: Censorship in Global, Distributed Networks, " in R. Cohen-
Almagor (ed.), Liberal Democracy and the Limits of Tolerance: Essays in Honor and Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000): 275.
33 Ibid.
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country setting its own laws and regulations concerning Internet oversight and monitoring.
These laws and regulations differ from one country to the other.
Perhaps the only thing more impressive than the breadth of the Internet, is its near
instantaneous arrival and restructuring of societies and lives across the globe. In historical
context, the repercussions of the Internet Revolution will most likely reach and surpass
those of the Industrial Revolution and other comparable phenomena.34
Just as we are beginning to realize the seemingly infinite potential that the Internet
presents for diffusion of knowledge and educational exchange, so too must we
acknowledge and assess the reach that the Net extends for dissemination of
counterprogressive information. Freedom of expression is of utmost importance and value
but it needs to be weighed against the no less important consideration of social
responsibility. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) states: “In the
wake of increasing globalisation, we have become increasingly conscious not only of what
we buy, but also how the goods and services we buy have been produced... All companies
and organisations aiming at long-term profitability and credibility are starting to realise
that they must act in accordance with norms of right and wrong.”35
At the outset, it was clear to me that I cannot possibly tackle all the problematic
information that we find on the Internet. I asked myself: What troubles you the most, and
what issues may present a compelling case for social responsibility? If I am able to reach
some conclusions and suggestions about the dealing with some highly problematic issues,
34 Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Information Technology and Democratic Governance, in Governance.Com: Democracy in
the Information Age, 1-2 (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2002): 1-2.
35 What Is Social Responsibility?, http://www.imasocialentrepreneur.com/social-responsibility/
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maybe the discussion can then serve as a spring-board to drive forward a motion for Net
social responsibility. After long and careful probing I decided to concentrate attention on
violent, anti-social forms of Internet expression: Cyberbullying, hate speech and racism, use
of the Net by terrorist organizations, crime-facilitating speech, and child pornography.
Criminal expressions aimed at financial gains are outside the scope of this book. Thus, I will
not address copyright violations, identity and credit theft, online piracy and counterfeiting,
phishing, spamming, fraud, and other forms of financial criminal trespass. Granted that
these are very important matters, so important that they deserve a separate, thorough
analysis.36 In addition, the book does not cover Internet speech designed to promote
democracy and human rights in non-democratic societies, most notably in the Arab world,
Africa and China. This important issue merits yet another, different analysis.
Anti-Universalism
The hypotheses advanced in this volume and the conclusions reached are limited to
modern democracies emerging during the last century or so. Democracy is defined as a
form of government whose power is vested in the people and exercised by them either
directly or by their representatives elected freely. As Abraham Lincoln said, democracy is
government of the people, by the people, for the people.37 That is to say, one assumption of
the liberal ideology that this book contests is the assumption of universalism. Clifford
36 See, e.g., Hannibal Travis (ed.), Cyberspace Law: Censorship and Regulation of the Internet (London and NY:
Routledge, 2013).
37 “A Short Definition of Democracy,” Democracy Building, http://www.democracy-building.info/definition-
democracy.html
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Christians, a renowned scholar and publicist in the area of media ethics, has emphasized
that there are universal ethical values that withstand borders and are shared by all
humans. Quoting Vaclav Havel, Christians writes that through human solidarity rooted in
universal reverence for life, we respect ourselves and genuinely value the participation of
others in a volatile age where "everything is possible and almost nothing is certain.”38 In an
earlier work Christians, Ferré and Fackler offered mutuality as a model of community that
is "universal, categorical, and normative.”39 Our membership in the human species creates
the notion of universal moral obligation and a belief in shared universal values. This belief,
however, is more a wishful thinking than an acknowledgment of reality. I believe that there
are some basic universal needs that all people wish to secure such as food, raiment, and
shelter; I believe that sexual drives are universal and that people need to have some sleep
to be able continue functioning; I also believe that we should strive to universalize moral
principles. But our ability to universalize our moral principles will be bettered by
emphasizing the differences between liberal and non-liberal values, not by blurring them
and confusing between the ideal and the real. Sociologically speaking we cannot ignore the
fact that universal values do not underlie all societies.40 Ideally there are some ethical
38 Clifford G. and Michael Traber (eds.), Communication Ethics and Universal Values (Thousand Oaks: Sage,
1997): 19. See also Deni Elliott, "Universal Values and Moral Development Theories,” pp. 68-83 in the same
volume.
39 Clifford G. Christians, John P. Ferré and P. Mark Fackler, Good News (New York: Oxford University Press,
1993), esp. p. 75. See also Clifford G. Christians, “Global Ethics and the Problem of Relativism,” in Stephen J.A.
Ward (ed.), Global Media Ethics: Problems and Perspectives (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013): 272-294.
40 For a contrasting view, see Clifford Christians and Michael Traber (eds.), Communication Ethics and
Universal Values; Leonard Swidler, For All Life: Toward a Universal Declaration of a Global Ethic (Ashland, OR.:
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concerns that should be accepted by all societies, but in reality we know this is not the case.
Some countries do not adopt liberal democracy as a way of life. Instead they adhere to
other forms of government that are alien to the underpinning values of liberal democracy:
liberty, equality, tolerance and pluralism. Some societies do not accept the norms of
respecting others, and not harming others that form the raison d'ètre of democracy.41
According to Immanuel Kant, it is only through morality that a rational being can be a law-
giving member in the realm of ends, and it is only through morality that a rational being
can be an end in himself. Kant distinguishes between relative value and intrinsic value,
explaining that people have intrinsic value, i.e. dignity. Kant identifies dignity with moral
capacity, arguing that human beings are infinitely above any price: “to compare it with, or
weigh it against, things that have price would be to violate its holiness, as it were.”42 In
other words, “humanity so far as it is capable of morality, are the only things that have
White Cloud Press, 1999); Mark Fackler and Robert S. Fortner (eds.), Ethics and Evil in the Public Sphere:
Media, Universal Values & Global Development (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2010).
41 On the notion of respect, see Ronald Dworkin, “Liberalism,” in A Matter of Principle (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1985): 181-204; idem, Taking Rights Seriously (London: Duckworth, 1976); R. Cohen-Almagor, The
Boundaries of Liberty and Tolerance (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1994); idem, Speech, Media,
and Ethics (Houndmills and New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005); idem, The Scope of Tolerance (London:
Routledge, 2006); Richard L. Abel, Speaking Respect, Respecting Speech (Chicago and London: University of
Chicago Press, 1998).
42 Immanuel Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals (Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill Educational
Publishers, 1969) or http://www.redfuzzyjesus.com/files/kant-groundwork-for-the-metaphysics-of-
morals.pdf. For further discussion, see Graham Bird (ed.), A Companion to Kant (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006).
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dignity.”43 Each person has dignity and moral worth. They should be respected qua being
persons and should never be exploited. In this context, Stephen Darwall distinguishes
between recognition respect and appraisal respect, explaining that the former includes the
respect we must show to people qua people, just out of recognition of their status as
people, while the latter is the respect we show to people in virtue of their character or
achievements.44 Kant had in mind recognition respect. Kant wrote: “Such beings are not
merely subjective ends whose existence as a result of our action has value for us, but are
objective ends, i.e. things [Dinge] whose existence is an end in itself.”45
In turn, the Millian Harm Principle holds that something is eligible for restriction only
if it causes harm to others. Mill wrote in On Liberty: “Acts of whatever kind, which, without
justifiable cause, do harm to others, may be, and in the more important cases absolutely
require to be, controlled by the unfavourable sentiments, and, when needful, by the active
interference of mankind.”46 Whether an act ought to be restricted remains to be calculated.
Hence, in some situations, people are culpable not because of the act that they have
performed, though this act might be morally wrong, but because of its circumstances and
its consequences. While Kant spoke of unqualified, imperative moral duties, Mill’s
philosophy is consequentialist in nature. Together the Kantian and Millian arguments make
43 http://www.redfuzzyjesus.com/files/kant-groundwork-for-the-metaphysics-of-morals.pdf
44 Stephen L. Darwall, “Two Kinds of Respect,” Ethics, Vol. 88, No. 1 (October 1977): 36-49.
45 Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals, http://www.redfuzzyjesus.com/files/kant-groundwork-for-
the-metaphysics-of-morals.pdf, p. 29.
46 John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, Liberty, and Representative Government (London: J. M. Dent. Everyman's
edition, 1948), chapter 3 of On Liberty, or http://www.bartleby.com/130/3.html. Fir further discussion, see
Piers Norris Turner, “’Harm’ and Mill’s Harm Principle,” Ethics, Vol. 124 (2014): 299-326.
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a forceful plea for moral, responsible conduct: Always perceive others as ends in
themselves rather than means to something, and avoid harming others. As Dworkin
suggests, the concept of dignity needs to be associated with the responsibilities each
person must take for her own life. Dignity requires owning up to what one has done.47
Liberal democracies accept these ideas as the foundations of governance. On the
other hand, theocracy, apartheid, and forms of governance that are based on despotism,
either of one person or of a small group, all deny the background rights and moral values of
liberal democracy. All forms of governance, all cultures and ideologies, have a certain
conception of justice but their understanding of justice may differ from one society to
another. Consequently, the specific ways in which cultures apply justice in particular
situations may differ.
In The Law of Peoples Rawls drew a distinction between liberal and illiberal
societies. Liberal societies are pluralistic and peaceful; they are governed by reasonable
people who protect basic human rights. These rights include providing a certain minimum
to means of subsistence, security, liberty, personal property as well as to formal equality
and self-respect as expressed by the rules of natural justice.48 Liberal peoples are
47 Dworkin asserts that people who blame others or society at large for their own mistakes, or who absolve
themselves of any responsibility for their conduct by blaming genetic determinism lack dignity. “The buck
stops here,” says Dworkin, is an important piece of ethical wisdom. Ronald Dworkin, Justice for Hedgehogs
(Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap, 2011), chapter 8, esp. pp. 210-211. For further discussion, see Jeremy Waldron,
“Is Dignity the Foundation of Human Rights?,” SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2196074 or
http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2196074 (January 3, 2013).
48 John Rawls, The Law of Peoples (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002), chap. 2. For further
discussion, see Richard Rorty, “Justice as a Larger Loyalty,” Ethical Perspectives, Vol. 4 (1997): 139-151.
17
reasonable and rational. Their conduct, laws and policies are guided by a sense of political
justice.49 In contrast, nonliberal societies fail to treat their people as truly free and equal.
Outlaw states are aggressive and dangerous,50 while other forms of nonliberal societies
might adopt skewed concepts of morality and justice, based on compulsion and coercion. A
nonliberal society may deem just to cut a thief’s hand while liberal societies may perceive
such justice as abhorrent. Another nonliberal society may deem just to stone a woman who
is said to be an adulterer while liberal societies conceive such justice as absolutely
repugnant. Authoritarian societies jail their political opponents while liberal societies
encourage pluralism of ideas and provide avenues to empower opposition. Moral values,
unfortunately, are not universally shared in all countries by all humanity. Thus my concern
is with Western liberal democracies which perceive human beings as ends and which
respect autonomy and variety. The arguments are relevant to other countries, but because
non-democratic countries do not accept the basic liberal principles, because their
principles do not encourage autonomy, individualism, pluralism, and openness, and their
behavior is alien to the concepts of human dignity and caring, one can assume that the
discussion will fall on deaf ears. Non-liberal societies, based on authoritarian conceptions
and principles, deserve a study on its own right.51 I will further elaborate and explain this
argument in Chapter 3.
49 Rawls, The Law of Peoples, p. 25.
50 Rawls, The Law of Peoples, p. 81.
51 See, for instance, discussions on Internet censorship in China,
http://www.irrepressible.info/static/pdf/FOE-in-china-2006-lores.pdf;
http://humanrights.suite101.com/article.cfm/internet_repression_in_china; Internet repression in Viet Nam,
18
While I am not a relativist, I believe that history and culture do matter. Societies do
not adopt a universal common denominator to define the boundaries of freedom of
expression. For instance, Germany and Israel are more sensitive to Holocaust denial, and
rightly so. While the United States protects hate speech, racism and Holocaust denial, we
would be most troubled if Germany were not to adopt restrictive measures against Internet
sites that deny the Holocaust. There is no universally shared measure to decide the
boundaries of freedom of expression. These boundaries vary from one society to another,
and are influenced by historical circumstances and cultural norms. Liberal societies adhere
to general liberal principles (thinly described as, say, ‘human rights’) but these are
instantiated in more detailed, specific, contextual ways (as, say, the more thickly described
ways that democracies understand ‘freedom of expression’). Basic human rights recognize
the inherent dignity of people as human beings. This broad and rather abstract idea
protects the life of the person and prescribes that any form of coercion should be explained
and justified. Freedom of expression is valuable and of great importance but it might be
compromised when other, no less important considerations (e.g. privacy, security, dignity
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGUSA20061022001;
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA41/008/2006; Internet repression in Iran,
http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2008-09-17-voa1.cfm;
http://bsimmons.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/internet-repression-in-iran/; http://www.iranian.ws/cgi-
bin/iran_news/exec/view.cgi/45/26756; Internet repression in Syria,
http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/news-articles/1711-syria-more-victims-internet-repression; Internet
repression in Ethiopia, http://cyberethiopia.com/home/content/view/26/;
http://nazret.com/blog/index.php?title=ethiopia_blocks_opposition_web_sites&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1.
See also Athina Karatzogianni, The Politics of Cyberconflict (London and NY: Routledge, 2006): chap. 4.
19
of the person) might come into conflict. In difficult or evenly balanced cases, our moral
conclusions may vary. On some occasions we may give precedence to freedom of
expression; on other occasions we may decide that the competing consideration is of
utmost importance.
The Book’s Object and Methodology
The object of this book is to discuss moral and social responsibility on the Internet. This is a
neglected issue in the New Media literature. It is time to start a discussion in the realm of
morality and ethics, one that supplements the many discussions in the realm of law. The
book addresses the ethical problems rooted in technology in response to potential risks on
the Internet. The Internet is not the problem. The problem arises where it is utilized to
undermine our well-being as autonomous beings living in free societies. This study focuses
on articulating possible solutions to specific problems and on providing a framework
within which these problems can be identified and resolved by accentuating the concepts
of moral and social responsibility. It strives to suggest an approach informed by the
experiences of democratic societies with different norms and legal cultures; one that
harnesses the strengths and capabilities of the public and the private sectors in offering
practical solutions to pressing problems.
The research for this book involved extensive survey of free speech literature,
theories in media ethics and in social responsibility; extensive survey of problematic,
violent speech on the Internet; analysis of relevant literature, government position papers,
state laws and court cases, and review of law-enforcement measures that have been taken
to combat various forms of violent speech. In addition, discussions and interviews were
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conducted in Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and France with key
policy makers, public officials, elected officials, police officials, legal scholars and justices,
media and Internet experts, and representatives of human rights and free speech NGOs. I
have employed similar methodology of extensive surveys in the fields of philosophy, law
and communication in previous studies, benefiting from experts’ experiences on topics that
are not well covered in the literature. I found that interviews often highlight issues that are
not discussed, or not discussed enough in the literature. Conversation with experts sheds
light on hidden subjects that one can easily miss when confined to libraries.
Chapters' Outline
The first three chapters lay the underpinning foundations for this book. The first chapter
provides the historical foundations, from the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)
project in the 1950s until today. Chapter 2 provides the technological foundations,
explaining some of the basic innovations pertinent for the argument, while Chapter 3
presents the theoretical foundations.
From 1960 onward, the technology advanced rapidly. This has been an age of
innovation where ideas have driven the development of new applications which, in turn,
have driven demand. Then we witness circularity. New demands yielded further innovation
(mobile communication technology, cloud computing) and many more new applications –
email, the world-wide-web, file sharing, social networking, blogs, skype. These were not
imagined in the early stage of the net.
Chapter 1 outlines and analyzes milestones in the history of the Internet, how the
Internet evolved from the ARPA project in 1957, its formative years (1957-1984) until
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nowadays; from the early Internet devised and implemented in American research units,
universities, and telecommunication companies that had vision and interest in cutting-edge
research until it became a global phenomenon. I highlight the entry of the Internet into the
commercial phase (1984-1989), facilitated by the upgrading of backbone links, the writing
of new software programs and the growing number of interconnected international
networks; the massive expansion of the Internet into a global network during the 1990s
when business and personal computers with different operating systems joined the
universal network; the instant and growing success of social networking -- sites that enable
Netusers to share information, photos, private journals, hobbies and personal as well as
commercial interests with networks of mutual friends and colleagues. The technology has
transformed into a quotidian network for identifying, sharing and conveying information
and ideas, exchanging graphics, videos, sounds and animation to hundreds of millions of
Netusers around the world.
Chapter 2 is designed to explain technological aspects and concepts essential to the
understanding as to how the Internet works and how it can be abused. New media
technology offers many desirable benefits: Velocity, scalability, standardization, and cheap
cost. In the foci of analysis are the basic characteristics of the Net, its most prevalent modes
of communication, the concept of file sharing, the work of search engines, and tools we
have to increase security and privacy: Filtering, monitoring, and encryption. Promoting
privacy via encryption may contribute to web users’ security but it might also undermine
their security.
Chapter 3 introduces the theoretical principles of the discussion. Relying on
Aristotle and contemporary philosophers, I distinguish between legal, moral and social
22
responsibility and present the notion of Internet trust. Legal responsibility refers to
addressing the issue by agencies of state power. Moral responsibility concerns the personal
responsibility of the agent to conscience. Social responsibility relates to the societal
implications of a given conduct. It concerns the responsibility of individuals and customers,
of governments and law-enforcements agencies, of business and Internet intermediaries,
and of the public at large.
I also introduce two pertinent theories: The “democratic catch” and moral panics.
The “democratic catch” is my attempt to find the Golden Mean for the sustained working of
democracies. A delicate balance should be maintained between measures taken to protect
democracy while adhering to the underpinning liberal values.
The next six chapters, 4 to 9, discuss social and moral responsibility of different
agents and actors: Responsibility of Netusers who upload information to the Internet, of
readers who encounter information on the web, of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and
Web Hosting Services (WHSs), of the state, and of the international community at large.
These chapters were enriched by fieldwork in Britain, Israel, the United States and Canada.
Chapter 4 focuses on the Megan Meier tragedy, a teenage girl who committed suicide after
she was harassed on the Internet. Then I discuss the anti-social problem of cyberbullying
which exemplifies lack of responsibility by Netusers, highlighting the need for Net
education and caring for the consequences of one’s actions. By cyberbullying is meant the
use of the Internet, cell phones or other devices to send or post, text or images, intended to
hurt or embarrass another person. The need for Netusers’ responsibility is apparent
considering the limited ability and will of governments to police the Internet. We cannot
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expect others – administrators, governments, international community – to be responsible
while we Netusers shake off any notion of responsibility.
As the Internet continues to grow, the responsibility of the reader is especially
important in the identification of new websites that serve as a vehicle for the expression of
murderous thoughts that potentially lead to murderous action. What is the responsibility of
readers when they encounter violent expressions on the Net? Do readers of websites have
any moral and social responsibility to warn against potentially harmful uses of the Net
which might be translated into real, practical harms? To address these questions, Chapter 5
focuses on the Kimveer Gill story. Gill, a person full of hatred and rage, vented his hostilities
on the Net prior to embarking on a shooting spree at Dawson College, Montreal. None of his
readers alerted the police. Since this murder we witness a growing phenomenon of mass
murders that have one common denominator: many murderers announced their intention
to kill on the Internet, yet not enough was done to stop them.
The responsibility of ISPs and host companies is arguably the most intriguing and
complex issue. With the advancement of technology at large and specifically the Internet,
responsibility for gaining and maintaining trust in the Net increasingly falls on those who
operate the Net, namely on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Web Hosting Services
(WHSs). Some of these companies act responsibly, making an effort to provide a safe
environment for their Netusers, thinking that this policy is beneficial to their reputation
and business. Other companies uphold Internet neutrality and conduct their business in
accordance with direct monitory consequences. In Chapters 6 and 7 I elaborate and explore
this issue in detail from the ethical and social perspectives. The main question is whether
Internet intermediaries should be proactive, i.e. not only cooperate upon receipt of
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information from various sources but also scrutinize their sphere for problematic, anti-
social and potentially harmful material; this in order to promote trust among their
subscribers. Here I discuss the concepts of net neutrality, perfectionism and discrimination.
I distinguish between three different meanings of neutrality: (1) Net neutrality as non-
exclusionary business practice, highlighting the economic principle that the Internet should
be opened to all business transaction. (2) Net neutrality as an engineering principle,
enabling the Internet to carry the traffic uploaded to the platform. (3) Net neutrality as
content non-discrimination, accentuating the free speech principle. I call the latter content
net neutrality. While endorsing the first two meanings of net neutrality I argue that
Internet gate-keepers should adhere to the Promotional Approach (PA) rather than to
neutrality. The promotional approach accentuates ethics and social responsibility, holding
that ISPs and web-hosting services should promote the basic ideas of respect for others and
not harming others. They should scrutinize content and discriminate against not only
illegal content (child pornography, terrorism) but also against content that is morally
repugnant and hateful. Here the concept of responsibility comes into play. I argue that
some value screening of content may be valuable and that the implications from affording
the Internet the widest possible scope can be very harmful. Being cognizant of the
possibility that “morally repugnant” might open wide the gate to further restrictions, I
emphasize that only cyberbullying and hate speech feature in this category.
The concluding two chapters concern state responsibility and the responsibility of
the international community. In Chapter 8, a clash is exhibited between the view that holds
cross-boundary freedom of information around the globe, and the right of states to assert
their jurisdiction, also on the Net. The first view holds that since the Internet knows no
25
frontiers, data must have no limitations and states should not erect them, while the second
view holds that the Internet is no different than any other medium of information; as the
state regulates in one way or another all forms of communication and see that they abide
by law so the Internet should abide by state law. The Internet’s distinct architecture does
not make it aloof from law.
It is argued that in the late 1990s, the Internet seemed a perfect medium for
business: People can be anywhere, make investments anywhere without any regulatory
limitations. I discuss in detail the contested Yahoo! saga in which the French authorities
wished to assert their laws over the conduct of Yahoo!, preventing the company from
posting on its auction sites Nazi artifacts which are illegal in France under its hate laws.
Further appeals in American courts did not yield the right result for Yahoo! This case,
among others, demonstrates that ISPs have to respect domestic state legislation in order to
avoid legal risks. The Internet is international in character, but it cannot be abused to
override law. There is not one law for people and another for the Internet. The Internet is
made by the people, for the people, and they need to abide by the laws of the people.
Chapter 9 supplements the previous chapter. It reflects on the responsibility of the
international community. Does the international community have a responsibility to unite
together in order to combat anti-social activities? As the Internet is an international
medium, there is need for transnational coordination and cooperation to respond to global
concerns. Indeed, the international community has legal, social and moral responsibilities.
Hate, terrorism and child pornography are decentralized and diffused, lack a coherent
global system, organized in cells with clear agenda and sophisticated means of
communication. The Internet is an obvious force in allowing their operation. To address
26
those challenges, international coordination is necessary. In this context I discuss the
Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime and other modes of cooperation that are and
can be utilized to promote Net security. Further mechanisms are suggested to be
implemented in order to promote international cyber security. It is argued that cross-
country challenges require cross-country cooperation.
My research shows that there is a pattern of closely linked virtual threats and violent
conduct. The ascending frequencies in which these events happen are more of a reason to
act on the international level. The nature of the Internet is such that it serves a certain
function for would-be-killers. Usually people do not just snap. There is a psychological
process, a mental journey that killers experience from the inception of thoughts to the
actual action. The process begins with bitterness, degenerates into anger and rage, and if
there are no mitigating circumstances, the wrath might end with a brawling explosion.
People need to vent their hostility, their acrimony, their anger. They provide signs, hints.
They find it difficult to contain all these boiling emotions inside them. In the Internet age, it
is convenient to vent into the virtual world. The global Internet, where people adopt
different personalities and have a perceived sense of anonymity, is becoming a vital
component of this crystallizing process. As the Internet continues to grow, the
responsibility of the reader who encounters murderous thoughts, of the ISP that hosts
those thoughts, and of law-enforcement agencies that cooperate across continents to
protect the lives of innocent people are all important in the identification of websites that
serve as a vehicle for the crystallizing process of potential murderers.
I close by proposing to establish a new browser for liberal democracies called CleaNet
©. Through mechanisms of deliberative democracy, Netusers would agree on what
27
constitutes illegitimate expression to be excluded from the browser. CleaNet © would
facilitate a safer and more responsible surfing of the Internet.
Gratitude and Dedication
This is my fifth book in a series that started with The Boundaries of Liberty and Tolerance,52
continued with Speech, Media and Ethics: The Limits of Free Expression53 and then The Scope
of Tolerance.54 The last book to address ethical boundaries to freedom of expression was
The Democratic Catch.55 Upon its completion it was clear to me that my next project would
concern the Internet, a fascinating growing phenomenon.
This book is the result of research and thinking conducted during the past decade. I
would like to thank friends and colleagues who conversed with me on pertinent questions
and who read parts or the entire book. First and foremost I am grateful to Clifford
Christians, Robert Cavalier, Jack Hayward and Steve Newman who read and commented on
the book manuscript. They provided vital suggestions and criticisms that challenged my
thinking and significantly improved the quality of the book.
I communicated and exchanged ideas with Eric Barendt, Ann Bartow, Vint Cerf, Jerry
Cohen, Dorothy Denning, Mark Fackler, Robert Fortner, David Goldberg, Holly Hawkins,
Jayne Hitchcock, Athina Karatzogianni, Wilfrid Knapp, Sam Lehman-Wilzig, Jacqueline
Lipton, Nikolaus Peifer, Mark Pillams, Jack Pole, Joel Reidenberg, Dominic Sparkes,
52 Gainesville, FL: The University Press of Florida, 1994.
53 Houndmills and New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2001, 2nd ed. 2005.
54 London: Routledge, 2006, Kindle ed. 2007.
55 Tel Aviv: Maariv, 2007 (Hebrew).
28
Christophe Stener and Mike Whine. They all provided invaluable insights. The three Oxford
scholars and friends -- Jerry Cohen, Wilfrid Knapp and Jack Pole -- are no longer with us.
Other people who provided useful information and helped me crystallize my
thoughts are Yaman Akdeniz, Michael Bernstein, David D. Clark, Bret S. Cohen, Abraham
Cooper, Reuven Erlich, Luciano Floridi, Mark J. Freiman, Laurence Godfrey, Harvey
Goldberg, Wayne Hanniman, Bonnie Jouhari, Leonard Kleinrock, Marvin Kurz, Roderick A.
Macdonald, David Matas, Giuliana Mazzoni, Bruce McFarlane, Mark Potok, Perry Roach,
Tony Rutkowski, Jose Vegar, Aaron Weisburd and Kevin Woodley. They provided
important observations and clarifications that enriched my understanding of the Internet,
its architecture, merits, use and abuse.
I am most grateful to the interviewees for their time and willingness to share their
knowledge and experience with me. I thank the following people for their kind
cooperation: Ruth Allen. Robert D. Atkinson, Carolyn Atwell-Davis, Steve Balkam, Rick
Boucher, Rosa Beer, Yigal Carmon, Daniel Castro, Michelle K. Collins, Robert Corn-Revere,
Irwin Cotler, Harold Feld, Charles M. Firestone, Mary E. Galligan, Julie A. Gottlieb, Leslie
Harris, Shawn Henry, Steve Jones, Jennifer King, Debora M. Lauter, Peter Leitner, Herb Linn,
Brian Marcus, John Morris, Philip Mudd, Michael Nelson, Gregory T. Nojeim, Nisha Patel,
Marc Rotenberg, Steven C. Sheinberg, Andrew Jay Schwartzman, Oren Segal, Peter Swire,
Adam Theirer, Jonathan Vick, Richard Warman, and Chris Wolf.
I acknowledge with gratitude the generous support of the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars, and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of
Hull. Both institutions provided me with the opportunity to concentrate on my research for
29
a precious period of time, allowing me to probe, think and write. I especially cherish the
year I spent at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the best research institute I have ever known.
Lee Hamilton, Mike van Dusen, Joe Brinley, Lee Rawls and George Talbot provided
invaluable assistance without which this book could have been published. I am truly
grateful to them for their support and belief in the importance of this research project.
Last but not least, I express my deep gratitude to Janet Spikes and Marco Zambotti
for their excellent research assistance; to Shannon Granville for her excellent editorial
support, and to my family for their love, understanding, support and enduring patience.
Gilad, Dana, Roei, and especially Zehavit provided me with much-needed time to complete
this book.
Linda Lee Stringer and her team at Publications Professionals LLC have checked all
webpages during the month of October 2014. At that point of time, all links were viable.
The nature of the Internet is such, however, that webpages move, and are sometimes
removed. But the reader is provided with ample information about sources and will be able
to find information on and off the Net.
An early version of Chapter 1 was published in International Journal of Technoethics,
Vol. 2, No. 2 (April-June 2011): 46-65. A very early version of chapter 5 was co-authored
with Sharon Haleva-Amir and published under the title “Bloody Wednesday in Dawson
College -- The Story of Kimveer Gill, or Why Should We Monitor Certain Websites to
Prevent Murder,” Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology, Vol. 2, Issue 3, Article 1 (December
2008), http://works.bepress.com/raphael_cohen_almagor/1. Another version of chapter 6
was published in Hilmi Demir (ed.), Luciano Floridi’s Philosophy of Technology: Critical
Reflections (Dordrecht: Springer, 2012): 151-167. A different version of chapter 8 was
30
published in Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 106, issue 3 (2012): 353–365. My gratitude is
granted for permissions to use the material.
The book is dedicated to my mother, Sarah Cohen, who passed away during the
writing phase. My mum stood by me all her life and was also involved in the thinking and
shaping of this book. She always encouraged me to study and explore social dilemmas, and
to work for the benefit of my community. Mum was the driving force behind me, the
compass, the anchor and the inspiration. To a large extent, I am who I am because of her
love and unwavering support. My mum will live in my heart and mind until my last day.
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Beverley
