Twitter Hate Speech Decision: International Implications "Does Twitter’s decision mean that online companies must comply with all national laws of the countries in which they operate, even indirectly? This case is an excellent example of the tensions revolving around which laws apply to companies in cyberspace. While Twitter is a US company, it has a French subsidiary, strengthening the argument of its French adversaries that it is clearly subject to French law. The fact that Twitter has users in France, who expressed their offending speech in French, and that Twitter has a specifically French-language platform, all served to strengthen the hand of those seeking to assert French law and the jurisdiction of the French courts over this company. How does this case, and the underlying French laws against hate speech, square with American conceptions of free speech, and a free and vigorous exchange of views, over the Internet? Frankly, this does not sit easily with the First Amendment. Freedom of speech occupies the place of a secular religion in American law and political identity. US Courts tend to grant wide latitude to free speech, even when it may be deemed offensive by significant portions of the population. France also has a robust tradition of free speech, but it is clear that other considerations, including recent history, have brought some conditions to the concept of freedom of expression." cgcsblog.asc.upenn.edu/2013/08/01/twitter-hate-speech-decision-international-implications/
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 09:38:38 +0000