Yanxi Lu(Cissy) CS408

Hello, my name is Yanxi Lu and you can also call me Cissy. I am from China and right now I am studying at Univerisity of New Hampshie.

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Assignment 6: Hate and the Internet

1. How would you define “hate speech?”
   Answer: I would describe the "hate speech" as any rude words or speech that discriminate a person.
2. Would you advocate placing limits on free expression (as most European countries do) in order to deal with the problems posed by hate speech? If so, how would you define those limits?
   Answer: I agree that some limits should be placed on free expression to prevent any problems caused by hate speech. Most of those hate speech are offensive and may hurt some people. However, we must be very careful that we are not doing too hard on those limits to allow enough free experssion. To keep the balance is always important and difficult.
3. Should we attempt to reach an international consensus on how to define hate speech and on the standards (if any) to be applied in dealing with it?
   Answer: I think it's a good idea to solidate the international cooperation and discuss any topics about how to define hate speech. However, I will argue that it's almost impossible to build up any standards for hate speech since every single country has its own culture and values. Some speech regarded as hate speech in one country may not be the same case in another country.
4. Is censorship or filtering of hate group websites ever appropriate? If so, under what circumstances?
   Answer: Yes, censorship or filtering can be very useful action against hate group websites and hate speech, especially for those people like racists who do so to incite conflicts.
5. Should creators of hate-oriented web sites be held responsible for actions of people (such as the "lone wolves," people who commit crimes of hatred without specific instructions) who view those sites and then commit hate crimes?
   Answer: If the websites are created on purpose by its owner to advertise hate speech like racism and terrorism, the creators are supposed to be reponsible for those hate crimes. However, we also need to be aware that some websites are not hate-oriented at the very beginning, but the people visiting the website may post hate speech. In this case, I don't think the creator should be responsible since a website is regarded as a free and open platform that anybody can say anything by default.
6. Would you advocate special restrictions on making hate-related material available to children via the Internet? (If so, what would you propose?)
   Answer: Definitely we need to take special restrictions and make the hate-related material away from children since children are good at mocking and easy to be affected. We may build up cooperation with children's parents and take some actions like limiting the time that children spend on-line and asking the parents accompany when they are surfing on-line.
7. Should there be any distinction between what is legal online and what is legal offline?
   Answer: To admit or not, the world of Internet is more open and tolerant than our reality life. However, I don't think we should have double standard for on-line and offline. If something is illegal offline but legal on-line, some people will definitely make use of the anonymity of Internet to release more hate speech. In this case, it will not help us to better regulate our on-line world.
8. Should the standards that apply to hate-related material be different from the standards that apply to other objectionable material such as pornography?
   Answer: I think this question is too vague to answer. The "hate-related material" is a wider concept regard to pornography. The hate-related material can of course be sexual related as well. So I don't think the standards for hate speech will be very difficult to be applied to pornography since they have very little in common.