Clear And Present Danger

Britain is cracking down on militant speech in an effort to slow terrorist attacks. It is considering regulating the internet. In the US, the Supreme Court struck down a North Carolina law banning sex offenders from social media. It cited the First Amendment. This is the difference in speech between the two countries. It will be interesting to see what happens when a US militant web site is banned and it sues to the Supreme Court. Will the body of nine men and women take the British point of view, especially if the site calls for violence against the US and its citizens? The Court’s view of the First Amendment is broad and deep. We hear from radicals on both sides of the political spectrum. This hasn’t prevented calls for self-censorship at Google and Facebook who are moving against hate speech on their systems. They are dealing with worldwide views of speech that are less broad than the US. However, what is happening in China with government censorship won’t happen here.