Online Speech

Resources

News Release, Published: 
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
The final settlement of a lawsuit in which the ACLU intervened will protect the privacy of what customers read, view, and listen to via their purchases on Amazon.com.  
News Release, Published: 
Thursday, October 14, 2010
In a victory for privacy and free speech on the Internet, a federal court emphasized  that government officials cannot watch over our shoulders to see what we are buying and reading.
Published: 
Thursday, July 22, 2010
This week, the Seattle Times is running a Washington Post expose on the vast American intelligence bureaucracy. Called Top Secret America, the series delves deep into the underbelly of the intelligence world and exposes a runaway freight train that costs a pretty penny and does little to keep us safe. Of particular significance to ACLU-ers, the series documents official frustration with data overload, notes the high cost and low efficacy of the expanding network of programs and agencies, and highlights concerns with the increasing role of private intelligence contractors. Those familiar with our work on surveillance and privacy will recognize these issues as common refrains.
Published: 
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The democratizing effect of the Internet is arguably its greatest feature, resulting in a revolutionary explosion of free speech and expression. But this effect recently came under fire in Viacom v. YouTube, a case affecting the fundamental framework of how content is created, disseminated and stored on line. Thankfully, by ruling that YouTube was covered by the “safe harbor” provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a U.S. District Court might have just saved the Internet as we know it. Read more
News Release, Published: 
Thursday, May 6, 2010
After an unfavorable decision by the Washington Supreme Court, the ACLU will continue to pursue in federal court a lawsuit challenging a library Internet filtering policy. The policy hampers adult library patrons seeking information for school assignments, trying to locate organizations on the Web, or simply doing reading.
News Release, Published: 
Monday, January 11, 2010
Background on the effect of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) on public computer access at libraries.
News Release, Published: 
Friday, January 8, 2010
In response to an ACLU of Washington lawsuit, the Puyallup City Council amended its solicitation ordinance to protect the rights of a religious organization to spread its message. The ACLU had filed suit on behalf of United States Mission challenging city restrictions that prevented the organization from carrying out its mission of preaching the "Social Gospel."
News Release, Published: 
Friday, November 20, 2009
The ACLU-WA believes that policies related to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) should foster free speech, encourage the free marketplace of ideas, enrich user choice, and nurture electronic public forums. To ensure maintenance of these values, there should be at least one broadly available network that carries information without regard to content, provider, or medium.
News Release, Published: 
Friday, November 20, 2009
On June 23, 1998 ACLU-WA Board member Doug Klunder testified before the Commercial Electronic Task Force on Spam.
News Release, Published: 
Friday, November 20, 2009
ACLU-WA 1999-2000 Annual Report Cyberspace is the latest frontier for battles over censorship. Around the state, right-wing groups are demanding that public libraries install filters to "protect" people from sexually explicit materials on the Internet.

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