EFF - Electronic Frontier Foundation
In a statement today, EFF reminds online service providers to stand firm against alleged terms of use violations that are used to bully and silience online critisims. We only need to look at EFF’s work with the MIT students at Defcon, and the fact that so many ISPs are now filterning previous unfettered access to Usenet newsgroups to know that these tactics are alive and used to push debate offline and away from the limelight. During this election season free speech must remain so as we debate and uncover facts about the people who are to lead America for the next 4 years. “As the country enters the most “wired” election season to date, EFF and the ACLU of Northern California strongly encourage online service providers (OSPs) and content owners to take special care to safeguard free speech. Copyright claims, trademark claims, and alleged terms of use violations can be misused to silence critics and stifle political dialogue online. Even temporary takedowns can harm open debate, as political speech depends on the spiritof the moment and the rapidly evolving arguments of the participants. The Internet can continue to revitalize our political lives – but only if service providers, content owners, and users all do their parts. No matter where you stand on the candidates or the issues, we should all agree on one principle: No downtime for online free speech!"_ _