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From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of CDT
Info
Sent: 23 October 2006 16:44
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc: CDT Policy Posts
Subject: Policy Post 12.19: Political Speech is Flourishing Under Strong
Online Protections
A Briefing On Public Policy Issues Affecting Civil Liberties Online
from The Center For Democracy and Technology
(1) Political Speech is Flourishing Under Strong Online Protections
(2) Background on the Debate Over Campaign Finance Rules Online
(3) New "Net Democracy Guide Promotes" Vigorous Political Participation
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(1) Political Speech is Flourishing Under Strong Online Protections
As it did in the 2004 election cycle, the political speech on the
Internet is playing a vital role in energizing voters and highlighting
key political issues. Online activists from across the ideological
spectrum are engaged in vigorous debate about the issues facing the
country. Meanwhile, the mainstream media appears to be recognizing the
major contribution that online speakers are having in the election
process. Many major candidates now employ staffers focused on the
debate as it unfolds in the political blogosphere in recognition of the
fact that blogs are playing an ever-growing role in the political
agenda, at the national, state, and local levels.
All of this political activity is taking place against a backdrop of
strong protections for individuals' online political speech that the
Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued in the Spring 2006. Under the
FEC's rules, the vast majority of online political speech by individuals
is insulated from regulations. Except for the placement of paid
advertisements, almost all online activities -- such as blogging and
political discussions in chat rooms and on social networking sites --
are protected.
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(2) Background on the Debate Over Campaign Finance Rules Online
By drastically lowering the costs associated with mass communication,
the Internet has given ordinary individuals the opportunity to
participate in the political debate on a scale never before possible.
But with the Internet's growing impact on electoral politics has come
increased scrutiny by policymakers and regulators regarding how federal
campaign finance reform laws should be applied to the medium.
In early 2005, the Federal Election Commission undertook a new
rulemaking to determine what online speech should be regulated. The FEC
initiated the process in response to a lawsuit that challenged the
commission's earlier decision to exclude the Internet entirely from
campaign finance rules.
An early draft of regulations prepared by the FEC's staff would have
imposed heavy and chilling burdens on political speech and debate
online. CDT and many others, including leading blogs across the
political spectrum, raised strong objections to such burdensome rules.
CDT helped to draft and organize a set of principles to help guide the
FEC in protecting individuals' rights to engage in online political
speech, and CDT and others testified and submitted written comments to
the FEC during its rulemaking process.
The end result of this effort was that the Federal Election Commission
issued rules that are very protective of individuals' political
activities on the Internet. The FEC largely limited its rules to focus
on paid political advertisements that someone places on another person's
web site. Although the FEC was somewhat constrained by the underlying
campaign finance laws, the rules it issued sought to provide
comprehensive protection for individual political speakers.
Campaign Finance Principles
http://www.cdt.org/speech/political/principles_w_background.pdf,
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(3) New "Net Democracy Guide Promotes" Vigorous Political Participation
Under the FEC rules, the vast majority of political speech by
individuals on the Internet is fully protected by the law and carries no
risk of violating campaign finance rules. Those rules, however, are
part of a much larger and very complex set of campaign finance rules,
and it is important that ordinary Internet users not let those rules
deter them from engaging in political activity online.
To address this concern that the campaign finance rules themselves can
be very difficult for laypeople to navigate, CDT developed
NetDemocracyGuide.org, which offers users a series of simple questions
to determine whether their online political activities fall under the
campaign finance regime. Developed with the support of the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, NetDemocracyGuide.org makes it easy for
bloggers and other citizen activists to quickly understand the new
campaign finance rules, and how those rules apply to them.
The site is broken down into three easy-to-read sections. The Quick
Checklist identifies a range of common online political activities that
are not restricted in any way by the campaign finance rules. For users
unsure whether their activities fall into that protected category, the
Questions & Answers section walks users through possible scenarios and
how they are affected under the law. Finally the Glossary describes the
major terms and includes links to the regulations themselves.
As part of the Net Democracy Guide, CDT is seeking feedback and input
about how the FEC's campaign finance rules are affecting or harming
political speech online. CDT will be monitoring whether and how -- in
actual practice in the current election -- the campaign finance rules
chill or burden valuable political speech on the Internet. After the
2006 election cycle, if major problems have emerged, CDT will seek to
change or improve the protections for online political speech.
Net Democracy Guide
_______________________________________________
Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be
found at http://www.cdt.org/.
This document may be redistributed freely in full or linked to
http://www.cdt.org/publications/policyposts/2006/19
Excerpts may be re-posted with prior permission of [log in to unmask]
Policy Post 12.19 Copyright 2006 Center for Democracy and Technology
_______________________________________________
http://www.cdt.org/mailman/listinfo/policy-posts
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