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> 
>    The New York Times, January 10, 1996, p. A10.
> 
> 
>    Group Urges an Internet Ban On Hate Groups' Messages
> 
>       Joins in Move to Censor Offensive Material
> 
>    By Peter H. Lewis
> 
> 
>    Citing "the rapidly expanding presence of organized hate
>    groups on the Internet," a leading Jewish human rights
>    group yesterday began sending letters to hundreds of
>    Internet access providers and universities asking them to
>    refuse to carry messages that "promote racism, anti-
>    Semitism, mayhem and violence."
> 
>    The letter from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a
>    425,000-member organization based in Los Angeles, is the
>    latest in a growing effort by legislators and private
>    interest groups to censor offensive material on the global
>    data network, which now connects millions of computer users
>    worldwide.
> 
>    "Internet providers have a First Amendment right and a
>    moral obligation not to provide these groups with a
>    platform for their destructive propaganda," Rabbi Abraham
>    Cooper, the center's associate dean, wrote in the letter,
>    which was sent to America Online, Compuserve, Prodigy, the
>    Microsoft Network and dozens of Internet service providers.
> 
>    Rabbi Cooper said the target of yesterday's call for
>    "ethical rules of engagement on the Internet" was not the
>    many discussion forums where individuals debate such topics
>    as whether the Holocaust actually occurred, but rather the
>    Internet's World Wide Web, a service that allows users to
>    publish electronic documents -- including text, pictures
>    and even sound clips -- that can be read by millions of
>    people.
> 
>    Dozens of groups, from white supremacists to anarchists,
>    have published documents on the Web about their points of
>    view. Some are revisionist histories and some are racist
>    tracts denigrating blacks, Jews, homosexuals and other
>    minorities.
> 
>    Such hate speech is not illegal under Federal law and is
>    generally protected by First Amendment guarantees of
>    freedom of speech. But efforts are growing to restrict
>    certain types of information on computer networks. Congress
>    is debating a proposal that would make it illegal to
>    transmit indecent material on the Internet. Even before
>    such laws are passed, some Internet access providers have
>    begun dropping clients who post offensive materials.
> 
>    "The Wiesenthal Center should realize that it is not
>    possible to make anti-Semitism or historical revisionism go
>    away by censoring it," said Mike Godwin, staff counsel for
>    the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group
>    that focuses on computer networks. "The best response is
>    always to answer bad speech with more speech."
> 
>    Mr. Godwin added, "On the Net It's quite clear that
>    whenever anti-Semites or Holocaust revisionists surface
>    with an attempt to purvey distortions or untruths,
>    individual citlzens spontaneously respond and correct the
>    record with documentation and facts."
> 
>    Indeed, dozens of Web pages have arisen to challenge the
>    hate-speech publications directly. Some even electronically
>    link their pages with those of their antagonists.
> 
>    "Obviously, if the Simon Wiesenthal Center's attempt goes
>    through our page would also be deemed unsuitable, which I
>    find offensive," said David Abitbol, an Internet consultant
>    in Montreal who operates Net Hate, a World Wide Web page
>    that seeks to expose hate speech on the Internet
> 
>    Mr. Abitbol said that he found hate speech offensive, but
>    added that "we are totally in support of free speech and
>    there is nothing anyone can do to stop these people from
>    broadcasting their information."
> 
>    Mark Weber, director of the Institute for Historical
>    Review, based in Newport Beach, Calif., called the
>    Wiesenthal Center's action "outrageous and hypocritical."
>    Some of the institute's publications challenge the
>    existence of the Holocaust.
> 
>    "I don't see how it is going to work," said Mr. Weber,
>    whose institute publishes revisionist histories in print
>    and on the Internet. He added that efforts had been made in
>    the past to put pressure on his Internet service provider
>    to drop the institute's Web service. "If need be, we could
>    conceivably set up our own service provider," he said.
> 
>    But Rabbi Cooper said the "unprecedented potential and
>    scope of the Internet" gives people "incredible power to
>    promote violence, threaten women, denigrate minorities,
>    promote homophobia and conspire against democracy."
> 
>    He cited the posting of instructions for making explosive
>    devices, including recipes for Sarin nerve gas and bombs
>    similar to the one that destroyed the Federal Building in
>    Oklahoma Clty last April 19.
> 
>    It is relatively easy to find Web sites operated by
>    neo-Nazis, skinheads and other racist groups.
> 
>    "We correctly label these groups as lunatic fringe," Rabbi
>    Cooper said. "But it is a mistake to think they lack
>    sophistication. They have embraced this technology quicker
>    than any other group of society. For them it is a
>    technology made in heaven."
> 
>    He said letters would be sent to about 2,000 Internet
>    access providers and university presidents over the next
>    two weeks, suggesting a voluntary code of ethics.
> 
>    The proposed code asks providers to pledge, "We consider it
>    our civic duty to refuse or terminate service to any
>    individual or group to exploit our services to promote an
>    agenda of hate or violence."
> 
>    But Esther Dyson, chairwoman of the Electronic Frontier
>    Foundation, responded: "This is where it gets really rough,
>    because emotionally it is so appealing. Yes, most of the
>    stuff is despicable. But it is still censorship."
> 
>    _________________________________________________________
> 
>    [Netscape page of Aryan Nations]
> 
>    A rights group urged Internet providers to refuse to carry
>    messages that it says promote racism, like the Web site of
>    the Aryan Nations, above.
> 
>    [Netscape page of The Bible and Abraham Lincoln on
>    Interracial Marriage]
> 
>    A Web page by a group advocating white supremacy tells
>    Internet users that God does not approve of marriages
>    between blacks and whites.
>    _________________________________________________________
> 
>    [End]
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