Kenny Brown CS408-01

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Assignment 5: Hate and the Internet

1. When I think about hate speech, the first thing that comes to my mind is peole being rude to one another.
   I would say it is when one person is using some form of communication to make rude remarks to another person.
2. I feel like there should be some limits set to the internet when dealing with hate speech. It has definitely
   gotten out of control recently. One big question that would be posed if we were to implement limits to free
   expression on the internet would be when does arguing turn into hate speech? What if friends were just having fun
   on the internet and saying bad things about each other but it was not out of hate. If I were to control it I
   would set limits on certain websites and end up trying to leave the social networking sites alone. I would say
   that when offensive language is used on one of the limited websites the messages would be forced to be removed.
3. I do not think it would be a good idea to try and internally get together and try and define hate speech.
   This being everyone has a different view, it would be impossible to try and reach an agreement. I feel like trying
   to do this would take incredibly long as well. It could also be costly having to find a way for all countries to
   be able to communicate. I do not see this being a feasible option.
4. It would not be appropriate to put any censorship on a hate website, only because that is what the website
   is for. People signed up for it, and if someone were to go to these websites they know what they are getting into.
   The only possible thing I could see being done would be making it to where you had to be a certain age to get to
   the website, trying to help keep children away from vulgar material.
5. Creators of hate websites should not be held responsible for those criminals who use that information for hate
   crime. That is like saying the companies who sell guns should be held responsible for a person shooting someone
   with a gun. That is just not right this goes back to the old saying do not hate the game hate the player. It all
   falls on the person who did the hate crime.
6. I think having special restrictions on any type of vulgar material should be restricted from children. I think
   this falls a lot on the parents using protection on their computers and blocking certain websites. If somehow the
   child got through that, I would try to have the website itself have an age restriction. The question would be, when
   is one old enough to see such material? I would say once someone gets into high school they are mature enough to
   see certain information, so that is where I would set the limit.
7. I think that what can be accepted online should be very close to what people accept in offline. This is an
   opinion though, so that is where a problem could arise. I would say if something is generally accepted in public,
   then it will be generally accepted online as well.
8. I think there is a very big difference between hate crime, and something such as pornography. I would say
   pornography is not something that is accepted in general at any age. Hate crime is seen a lot differently it is
   something that is easier to accept at an appropriate age. With that being said I think that pornography should have
   much stronger restrictions then something such as hate crime.