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IP: When I grow up I want to live in a world where the Secretary of State censures political speech on the Internet... -- Good Morning Silicon Valley Fri Nov 03 12:15:14 EST 2000
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2000 04:44:09 -0500
The Southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union will <http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3365122.html>file for a temporary restraining order against the state of California and California Secretary of State Bill Jones for "threatening criminal prosecution" against <http://www.voteswap2000.com/>voteswap2000.com -- a site where people in hotly contested states agree to vote for Gore if someone in a less contested state votes for Nader. The hope is that by doing so Gore will gain a lead over Bush in the contested states, while the Green Party gains the minimum 5 percent of votes necessary in other states to qualify for campaign contribution matching funds in the 2004 presidential election. Jones' previously filed restraining order cast a wet blanket over the initiative, one the ACLU claims undermines healthy political discourse. "What the secretary of state is doing is censuring political speech on the Internet," said Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney for the Southern California branch of the ACLU. "It's the first time I'm aware of that any elected official anywhere has attempted to censure political speech on the Internet... I think the secretary of state is clamping down on pure political speech," he said. "Whether it's because he's a Republican and this is a (site designed to help) Democrats I don't know, but he's chilling the nation's discourse."
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- IP: When I grow up I want to live in a world where the Secretary of State censures political speech on the Internet... -- Good Morning Silicon Valley Fri Nov 03 12:15:14 EST 2000 Dave Farber (Nov 07)