What do you think about how courts, employers, and others use blogging against bloggers? Should courts be able to impose censorship on bloggers? Should employers be able to ban bloggers from blogging, or restrict it?
Freedom by Blues Traveler
Blogging, and many Web 2.0 technologies (i.e. social networking, online forums, folksonomy) in general depend on user-generated content. To be more specific, they are designed to be a means of starting and continuing discussion about an infinite variety of topics. People blog to express ideas, opinions, even just random thoughts about their day. They do so in an online forum to encourage interraction, to promote the exchange of information with their readers.
Anyone who has a blog has the right to post whatever they want to post. It is their forum, their place to write and/or vent and/or opine. They have the freedom to include anything they wish to include. In that way, they have complete freedom of speech. Neither the court, nor an employer should be able to censor them. (With a notable exception that an employer is well within their rights to restrict access to blogging from a company-owned computer, as the machine was purchased with the intention of work duties being performed on it, not blogging.)
However, bloggers are also subject to the same restrictions as the rest of the world. A person is free to write something on their blog, but if it defames someone else, it's libel. If they write bigoted statements, it's hate speech.
Freedom of speech is not freedom from the repercussions of that act, and I believe sometimes this gets confused in the process. The blogger alone is responsible for the words that reach the public eye.
The conundrum for me lies not in the free speech itself, for I personally adhere to the belief that while I may not agree with what you say I will fight for your right to say it, but rather in the legal interpretations of free speech. Each country has its own definition and laws surrounding the basic premise of free speech as laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Some are more liberal, some are more restrictive. Which laws apply? If a blogger posts something from his or her computer located in Germany to a blog host owned by citizens of the United States, whose servers are located in India, what laws apply?
This post was composed as part of this week's Hump Day Hmm, hosted by Julie Pippert at Using My Words. You can visit her blog to see more perspectives on this subject.
5 comment:
Interesting ...
I agree with freedom of speech, but I also think that you need to be pretty careful what you say if you're going to attach your name to it.
I have chosen not to blog about my work with the exception of the occasional funny story, but never anything newsworthy, derogatory or potential confidential and I don't name the company (though you could probably figure it out). My reason - I've signed a conflict of interest policy and a confidentiality agreement, and I'd rather err on the side of caution.
But, stuff like politics, entertainment, etc - I don't see the harm.
I agree with what you're saying. Free speech is governed by laws, but whose laws apply. It's definitely ambiguous. And if we're blogging on company computers (and therefore company time, in many cases) our employer has a say in the matter. In the end, I think the whole idea of governance over blogging is evolving and has a long way to go, just like anything else online.
Huh. Again, you've got me thinking; there's stuff in this post I haven't thought much about before.
Hey -- while I'm here, I've been meaning to ask you...have you guys decided about a family pet?
Which laws apply? <-- great question
Laws haven't caught up, which is, I think, how we are seeing incidences of judicial activism masquerading as judicial interpretation of applicable laws.
When I hear about some of the recent restrictions on bloggers---such as court banning one person from mentioning another on his blog, employers making employees sign "no blog" contracts, and so forth---it seems as if the rights you mention (and that I agree with) are in question (to understate it).
I always say that there's Free Speech -- essential to any notion of a "free society." BUT, with freedom of speech comes RESPONSIBILITY. Everyone needs to honour that. Whether it's blogging at home with kids around or at the office blogging office stuff!
Blog responsibly! ;)
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