Essay Sample on Governing Cyberspace: The ICT Debates at Various Levels

Introduction

Cyberspace is the computer-generated communication space developed by digital technologies. Cyberspace is not restricted to the computer network's operation, but also, it encompasses all the social activities where the digital I.C.T.s are used. The internet usage is continuously increasing due to the activities that are considered to be private communications. The governance of cyberspace is a current emerging issue within the I.C.T. debates at various levels. Public and corporate policy-making is vital if more people are interested in using cyberspace. This is to protect the cyberspace against new opportunities for cyber-crimes. Cyberspace is regarded as an electronic frontier by the public because it regulates their daily lives; thus, the need to govern it by rules and regulations. The 1st amendment is simply looking like an easy command requiring Congress not to make laws that abide by freedom of speech or press. However, the regulation becomes challenging in its application to electronic media, including the terms constitutionally protected and the level of immunity different speeches receive by the law. Therefore, this essay seeks to highlight the rights of individuals in respect to the first amendment on cyberspace.

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Overview of the First Amendment

Before discussing the relationship between the rights instilled in the 1st amendment and the cyberspace. The 1st amendment is inclusive of the freedom of assembly, petition, press, speech, and religion. The first freedom that was mentioned in the amendment was the freedom of religion because it had an impact on all individuals in the U.S. so, it was the first right to be said. The freedom of religion stated that the government had no permission to make laws concerning religion. It also indicated that citizens should not be limited or restricted to join the religion of their interest. The second right included in the first amendment is the freedom of speech that is the most studied in the cyberspace context. Freedom of speech indicates that people are free to express themselves publicly. Nevertheless, the right is restricted to protect public well-being. The freedom of speech has three significant exceptions, which include defamation, clear and present danger, and offensiveness (Kende, 2018).

The other right indicated in the first amendment is the freedom of the press. The freedom restricts the government from denying the media and therefore the public the accessibility to vital information that the government refers to be of 'national interest.' Finally, the fourth and the fifth rights included in the 1st amendment are the freedom of petition and freedom of assembly, respectively. The right of appeal offers the public the opportunity to peacefully object to the government's activities that seem unsuitable or unjust. The freedom of petition motivates the people to fight for what they believe is right in case there is a disparity with the government policy. The final right, the freedom of assembly helps the public with similar beliefs and opinions to group together. Civil protesting is made probable by the freedom of petition and assemble.

The Freedom of Speech

In 1996, a District Court in the U.S. affirmed that the Communication Decency Act of 1996 was not constitutional because it was limiting the public their freedom of speech (Dilevko, 2017). The 1st amendment of the U.S. Constitution specifies that Congress should not make any law restricting the freedom of speech. Freedom of speech ensures that citizens are free to share their opinions and ideas. The right of communication in the U.S. is regarded to be fundamental to the emerging political structure of the nation. The primary free speech justifications that are mostly stated as the classical model provide explanations concerning the essentiality of free speech, which is sincerely valued by the public. Some of the speech justifications include the right to self-expression, self-governance and democracy, self-fulfillment and individual personality, a market place of opinions, and freedom of conscience.

The freedom to express ourselves is a vital tool for freedom of self-fulfillment, personal identity, and conscience. Civil liberties indicate that self-expression is among the essential justification that can be provided for free speech (Yang & Grinshteyn, 2016). The pledge to liberty lies primarily in the notion of personal sovereignty, a capacity to living a life-permitting to decisions intentionally made within a realistic range of choices. Liberty is the essence of living with the freedom of choosing what individual values, communicating freely, and living a life made of personal decisions. Freedom of expression serves as a tool to persuade others and to advance understanding. Also, it is a means used by the public to acknowledge and begin to implement their commitments to the chosen values and decisions. Freedom of expression enables individuals to define a vital aspect of their uniqueness.

Market place ideas model enables the establishment of the truth. Freedom of expression helps people to participate in debates concerning moral and social values. The best method of finding the convenient theory of anything is permitting the most extensive probable range of opinions to circulate (Adams & Albakajai, 2016). The market place idea model is beneficial to people because it enables them to choose amongst a likely wide range of ideas. The market place model was useful in the United States after it was created by the Supreme Court to defend the first amendment protection for a disliked speech like racism advocacy theories.

Additionally, the model denies protection to different types of expression like obscenity, which does not add value to the market place of ideas. Market place ideas model is useful in commercial speech like advertising and market economy because it provides information regarding products and the comparative advantages of commercial rivals to be publicized, easing knowledgeable selections by consumers. Freedom of expression in a liberty community that has a market economy supports a vital feature of shared economic life. The idea is dependent on the notion that the information will be presented to the market through advertising so that the buyers can have a variety of products to choose from. However, it is evident that some successful adverts, for example, magazines advertising cigarettes, relying entirely on images instead of providing essential information about the quality and health issues related to consuming cigarettes. This model has its restrictions because it is not always that free speech provides the truth and does not indicate clearly whether the speech that is neither false nor true must be protected.

Free Speech

In the United States, it is unconstitutional for the government to restrict speech content unless a compelling national interest is provided. The exemptions include:

• Speech that can cause forthcoming lawless acts can be regulated.
• Speech that contains fighting words that is words that have insults that can lead to fights may be limited
• Obscenity- if the speech has a suggestive expression or deliberately offensive to an individual without severe social values can be restricted.
• Children pornography is prohibited no matter the legal obscenity or the social value it contains. This is because children pornography encourages the public to be involved in lustful displays, and its establishment threatens the well-being of a child.
• The constitution restricts speeches that have defamatory statements because the speech can enhance civil liability.
• Commercial speeches can be prohibited if they provide force information or constitute unlawful products. Also, commercial speeches can be limited if they directly develop a significant national interest with suppression level higher than the required.

Free Speech Protection in Cyberspace

The institution that needs to uphold the right of speech and expression should also enforce the freedoms in cyberspace. For instance, the ability to filter outgoing or incoming content on web pages in public universities or colleges is limited. An individual must find a means to practice the free speech right. Before the human race invested in the speech, the first means was communicating through gestures. For an extended period, the expression became the 2nd means of communication followed by writing (Bruneau et.al, 2017). The innovation of telephones modernized communication means. The methods of mass communication is crucial as it enhances the promotion of freedom because it enables receiving and imparting information and thoughts. The advantages of free media as a type of cyberspace include:

• Contribution to the application of both customer selection and public policy through the provision of channels. This enables the communication of commercial information and governmental ideas.
• Free media enables the promulgation of a society's cultural values and facilitates the debate concerning the values that are in flux. This advances the growth and continued existence of civilization.
• The free media is used as a medium for self-expression; therefore, it is a substantial tool of individual autonomy.
• When free media acts as a communication medium, it assists in allowing the political discourse that is essential in any state that desires to have democracy.
• The communication growth through frontlines by satellite, telephone lines, and the internet has demanded a global method to control and background for the progressively convergent industries that combine various ingredients.

The cyberspace world is a true democracy. People's influence is not determined by the position they occupy or their wealth, but the power of writing and reasoning measures it. Cyberspace provides various types of communication, such as video, audio, and texts. Information and Communication Technologies have drastically minimized the speech distribution cost. Therefore, even the less privileged people can access the internet to share or access speeches. Communication through the internet is a great equalizer because it is accessible to everyone; hence, any person can be a reporter or a publisher. Due to the freedom of expression, every individual has the opportunity to be heard in the electronic environment.

Content Regulation in the Cyberspace

Content such as pornography is continuously growing from an insignificance state to an international social issue. The real growth and spread of pornographic images begun after the printing press innovation. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Europe had an experience of a pornography wave, which is not different with the current publications. However, there are specific aspects concerning the pornography circumstances that have established in the previous 25 years, and it is currently prevailing in the majority of western countries like Japan. One crucial aspect is that pornography is easily accessible to all people, but previously it was limited to the economic and intelligent rich people. Another characteristic is that pornography is widely becoming socially and morally acceptable in some countries and even legal, which had never happened in the past 200 years. For the world of cyberspace, where pornographic materials appear to be loved by many internet users, the Miller test that was used by the Congress seems to be suitable to determine if a particular article is obscene or not because of the principles for judging obscenity changes from nation to nation.

The Child Online Protection Act

In 1998, the Congress members implemented the statue intending to protect the children from obscene and pornographic materials in the cyberspace. Congress then narrowed the statute aiming for the commercial activities of distributing pornographic materials to the min...