IP: Stokey Il yet again

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Fax
UNITED STATES 3 Wednesday, Jan. 10, 1996
Jewish Group Seeks Internet Restraints
Citing "the rapidly expanding pres-ence of organized hate groups on the
Internet,'' a leading Jewish human rights group Tuesday began sending
letters to hundreds of Internet access providers and universities asking
them to refuse to carry messages that "promote racism, anti-Semitism,
may-hem and violence.'' The letter from the Simon Wiesen-thal Center, a
425,000-member organi-zation based in Los Angeles, is the lat-est in a
growing effort by legislators and private interest groups to censor
offensive material on the global data network, which now connects millions
of computer users worldwide. "Internet providers have a First Amendment
right and a moral obliga-tion not to provide these groups with a platform
for their destructive propa-ganda, '' Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center's
associate dean, wrote in the letter that was sent to Internet service
providers. Rabbi Cooper said the group's target was not the many discussion
forums where individuals debate such topics as whether the Holocaust
actually oc-curred, but rather the Internet's World Wide Web. Dozens of
groups, from white supremacists to anarchists, have pub-lished documents on
the Web about their points of view. Some are revi-sionist histories
questioning whether there was a Holocaust and some are racist tracts
denigrating blacks, Jews, homosexuals and other minorities. By PETER H. LEWIS