Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign
Encyclopedia
Intellectual freedom
Intellectual freedom is the right to freedom of thought and of expression of thought. As defined by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is a human right. Article 19 states:...
on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, orchestrated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
(EFF). Web site owners are encouraged to place images of blue ribbon
Blue ribbon
The blue ribbon is a term used to describe or symbolize something of high quality. The usage came from The Blue Riband, a prize awarded for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by passenger liners—and prior to that from Cordon Bleu which referred to the blue ribbon worn by a particular order...
s on their sites and link to EFF's campaign. This is done so that they can help spread awareness of the threats to unrestricted speech in new media.
History
The campaign was launched immediately after the passing of the Communications Decency ActCommunications Decency Act
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the first notable attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In 1997, in the landmark cyberlaw case of Reno v. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court struck the anti-indecency provisions of the Act.The Act was...
(CDA) in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on February 1, 1996, followed by the Black World Wide Web protest
Black World Wide Web protest
On February 1, 1996, U.S. Congress passed the Telecommunications Act, a telecommunications reform bill containing the Communications Decency Act. Timed to coincide with President Bill Clinton's signing of the bill on February 8, 1996, a large number of web sites had their background color turned to...
on February 8, 1996, and remained popular throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s. The Communications Decency Act was ruled unconstitutional in large part by the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
on June 26, 1997 in a joint ACLU
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
/EFF suit. EFF relaunched the campaign on June 15, 1998 to raise awareness of other legislation that they felt threatened freedom of expression online, especially the CDA follow-up bill, the Child Online Protection Act
Child Online Protection Act
The Child Online Protection Act was a law in the United States of America, passed in 1998 with the declared purpose of restricting access by minors to any material defined as harmful to such minors on the Internet...
(COPA), also eventually overturned.
MIT Student Association For Freedom of Expression
The Student Association for Freedom of Expression, also known as SAFE, was an organization founded at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, or MIT. The group formed in response to their observations that free speech rights were being infringed upon at their school and was active during the 1990s. The Student Association for Freedom of Expression was also a contributor to the Blue Ribbon Campaign .
History of SAFE
When the Student Association for Freedom of Expression was first formed there were only about five to ten active members in the organization . Although the group was small, they worked hard to gain awareness at MIT, using such methods as a poster campaign. Perhaps one of the most notable things about SAFE is that it was one of the very first websites to focus on civil liberties. This website was constructed by Seth Finkelstein . The Student Association for Freedom of Expression is no longer active on the MIT campus .Goals of SAFE
The goal of the Student Association for Freedom of Expression was to keep the rights that Americans have to freedom of expression intact, especially at MIT . The group worked by speaking out against the policies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology they felt were going against their rights granted by the First Amendment to the United States ConstitutionFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
. In particular, SAFE worked to help fight the harassment policy at MIT because their definition of harassment was too broad. MIT wanted their harassment code to allow freedom of speech, but at the same time, take away peoples’ right to offend others with their speech when it would be unreasonable to do so . Any expression of ideas that could be found offensive to someone would be strongly discouraged for both students and faculty . MIT’s harassment code also allowed the school to punish employees or students by termination if they felt the person was guilty of not upholding the harassment code. Members of the Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression wrote a letter to MIT that expressed their concerns about the new harassment code. They thought the code took away peoples’ right to freedom of expression and without this, people at MIT would be limited intellectually .
In particular SAFE felt it was important to protect peoples’ freedom of speech online . One specific member of SAFE, Seth Finkelstein, chose to participate in a forum about an article that was written by an MIT faculty member. The article told a story about a woman who was offended by the pornographic material she saw on a neighboring computer in the library. When she asked the man viewing the material to remove it, he had refused. The article told about the court case that followed this event and used derogatory language when talking about the man’s side of the case. Seth Finkelstein expressed his opinion about the case by stating that the man was exercising his rights to freedom of expression and her rights were not infringed upon. Finkelstein voiced his opinion that people do not have the right to not be offended . SAFE felt as though people should have the freedom to express themselves online and took measures such as these to defend their right to do so.
Press for SAFE
The Student Association for Freedom of Expression found other opportunities for press, in addition to their poster campaign on MIT’s campus. They were featured on a local radio show. Also, MIT’s student newspaper, The Tech, published articles that told of SAFE’s actions on campus and beliefs about peoples’ rights to freedom of expression. The school newspaper also printed a letter written by SAFE to a new professor on campus, telling him about the school’s new harassment code.External links
General information- "Your Constitutional Rights Have Been Sacrificed for Political Expediency". Electronic Frontier FoundationElectronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
, February 1, 1996. - "Blue Ribbon Campaign". Electronic Frontier FoundationElectronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
, 1996. - "Help Us Protect Free Speech Online!" – protest campaign by EFF
- The campaign's launch message as archived from Usenet
- "EFF Urges Internet Users to Join a New Blue Ribbon Campaign to Oppose Current Attempts to Censor the Net". EFFector online newsletter, Vol. 11, No. 9; Electronic Frontier FoundationElectronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
, June 15, 1998.