The Freedom And Limitation Of Network Speech

During the era of the traditional paper-based media in the17th and18th century, throughthe exposition of many Enlightenment thinkers, the meaning and value of freedom of speechhas been informatively elaborated. Additionally, in many countries, freedom of speech isgiven full recognition and adequate legal protection in the judicial practice. Since the born ofthe internet in1960s, during just these several decades, the development of internettechnology has a significant effect on modern society. As a new media, internet not onlychanged the traditional mode of propagation of news and information, but also provided anunprecedented freer and wider platform for general public to express their personal opinionand comments. In recent years, the emerging social networking tool-microblogging, with itsfeatures of disseminating the information briefly and diversifying means of communication,makes freedom of speech which as one of the basic rights of citizens get greater expansionalong with the development of internet. But every coin has two sides. On one side, internetbrings the stronger vitality to the freedom of speech; on the other side, the right to expressfreely has been abused, which brings a series of harmful consequence such as infringementothers’ legal rights and damage public interests. In the other word, internet enlarged the harmof the freedom of speech. Therefore, the proper restriction of the freedom of speech becomesa real and urgent issue.This essay is divided into four parts.The first part is a general summarize of freedom of speech. I will present this fromthree aspects, there are the concept of the history of freedom of speech theory, thedevelopment of freedom of speech theory, the value of freedom of speech and the restrictionof freedom of speech.The second part is the introduction to freedom of network speech. I will introduce thecharacteristic of freedom of network speech and the value of freedom of network speech.Additionally, the freedom of speech on the microblogging will be elaborated in detail.The third part is the empirical analysis about the restriction of freedom of speech. Thispart will be discussed from individual interest and public interest. And with the analysis oftypical examples in the microblogging, I will examine the conditions and factors of thelimitation on freedom of speech, and express my view on how to set restrictions on freedom of speech and the extent about the restrictions on freedom of speech.The fourth part is conclusion. It is the summary of my view about how to set restrictionon freedom of speech and the extent about the restrictions.