A Cyber Liberties Alert from the ACLU Urge Your Online Service Providers to Fight the Modified Exon/Gorton Amendment! As you know from our previous Cyber Liberties Alerts, Congress is moving to dramatically restrict the free speech and privacy rights of online users. On March 23, 1995, the Senate Commerce Committee approved the Exon/Gorton bill (the so-called "Communications Decency Act", also known as S.314) as an amendment to the Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995. While the proposed legislation was modified to include some defenses from criminal liability for online service providers, users are still very much at risk of both massive fines and imprisonment. The ACLU has written an open letter to online providers, copied below, that urges them to wage a full-scale fight for the rights of online users. Some providers are still actively standing up for your rights while others may not be. There are still opportunities to fight the legislation in both House and Senate, but the fight will not succeed without the concerted efforts of online users, civil libertarians, and online service providers. Remember that the Senate Commerce Committee approved the Exon/Gorton amendment despite opposition letters and petition signatures from over 100,000 online users. ACT NOW: Write to your online service providers and ask them to make a public declaration against the Exon/Gorton amendment and to push aggressively for the greatest amount of free speech and privacy for online users. (A sample letter is attached.) Please copy your letter to the following e-mail address: infoaclu@aclu.org. In addition, continue to voice your opposition to the Exon/Gorton Amendment to members of the Senate Commerce Committee and your own senators. See our previous ACLU Cyber Liberties Alerts for instructions on how to reach the Senate: gopher://aclu.org: 6601. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [COPY] An Open Letter to Online Providers Regarding the Exon/Gorton Amendment March 28, 1995 On March 23, 1995, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to violate the civil liberties of every present and future member of the online community. The so-called "Communications Decency Act" was modified to include some defenses from criminal liability -- but these are available only to online service providers. In fact, other modifications made the legislation worse for users. The Exon/Gorton amendment remains a blatant violation of the free speech and privacy guarantees of the Constitution. We therefore urge all online providers to continue (or, if necessary, to begin) a full-scale fight for the rights of online users against the government interference embodied in the Exon/Gorton amendment. The Exon/Gorton amendment subjects online users to surveillance and imposes criminal penalties for messages deemed by some government official to be "indecent, lewd, lascivious or filthy" -- all communications protected by the First Amendment. By criminalizing the content of private messages, it would invite active interference in the basic speech of everyone using a telecommunications device. The amendment was attached to the Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995, which was approved by the Commerce Committee and is being sent for consideration to the Senate floor. There are still opportunities to fight the legislation in both House and Senate, but the fight will not succeed without the concerted efforts of online users, civil libertarians, and online service providers. Sexual expression has been a fundamental part of human communication from the beginning of recorded history. The online community is no different. There is no question that talk about sex and the exchange of sexual images has contributed to the vibrant quality of online communications, and an increasing number of online subscribers. And Congress need not ban constitutionally protected forms of speech in order to protect children from sexually explicit materials. Interactive technologies allow users -- including concerned parents -- to have more control over content than any previous communications medium. Many of the traditional arguments for restricting sexually expressive material, such as radio/TV's assault on unwilling listeners or the fear that a child will wander into an adult bookstore, simply do not apply to interactive technologies. Moreover, the Exon/Gorton amendment's censorial sweep encompasses content that has nothing to do with sex -- anything deemed "indecent" or "filthy" -- subjective terms that could apply to any message outside the mainstream. The amendment would make the online community one of the most censored segments of communications media when logic dictates that it should be the least censored. The Exon/Gorton amendment also subjects an industry that has blossomed without government control to an unprecedented amount of interference and intrusion. We applaud those online providers who have both publicly declared their opposition to the Exon/Gorton amendment and who continue to fight for the constitutional rights of their subscribers. These providers recognize that no one in the online community will benefit from an amendment that seriously threatens the free flow of information and the diversity of content transmitted over online networks. To achieve the liberating potential of the information superhighway, Congress must ensure that interactive technologies enhance rather than stifle democratic values like user choice. We therefore call upon ALL online service providers to join online users and civil libertarians in the fight against the Exon/Gorton amendment. We urge online service providers to make a public declaration against the amendment and to push aggressively for the greatest amount of free speech and privacy for online users. American Civil Liberties Union "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SAMPLE LETTER Dear [name of each of your online service providers]: I am writing, as a user of your service, to urge you to make a public declaration against the Exon/Gorton amendment to the Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995. While providing defenses from criminal liability for online providers, the Exon proposal leaves online users at risk of large fines and imprisonment for constitutionally protected speech. I urge you to: *Make a public declaration against the Exon proposal. *Aggressively lobby the Senate to vote against the Exon proposal, and aggressively lobby to prevent similar proposals in the House version of the telecommunications reform legislation. *Continue to push for the greatest amount of free speech and privacy for online users. Sincerely, [name] -------------------------------------------------------------------- The American Civil Liberties Union is a nationwide, nonpartisan organization of over 275,000 members. Now in its 75th year, the ACLU is devoted exclusively to protecting the civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, whereever these liberties are at risk -- in a bookstore, in school, on the street, in cyberspace, wherever. The ACLU does this through legislative action, public education and litigation. ============================================================= ACLU Free Reading Room | A publications and information resource of the gopher://aclu.org:6601 | American Civil Liberties Union National Office ftp://ftp.pipeline.com /aclu mailto:infoaclu@aclu.org | "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty"