The Volokh Conspiracy
[Todd Zywicki, August 13, 2007 at 4:52pm] Trackbacks
Comparative Regulation of Blogs as Campaign Speech:

My colleague Allison Hayward, an expert in campaign finance regulation and political speech, has a new article on "Regulation of Blog Campaign Advocacy on the Internet: Comparing U.S., German, and EU Approaches." You can download it here.

Lior:
Am I the only one who interpreted the article to mean that "comparative regulation of blogs" may be a form of "campaign speech" ?
8.13.2007 5:02pm
Larry Fafarman (mail) (www):
It is a big myth that blogs are immune from government regulation because they are "private." Roe v. Wade notwithstanding, there is no such thing as a right to "privacy." You can be thrown in jail for storing kiddie porn in the "privacy" of your own home and an environmental law can virtually confiscate "private" land.

For the following reasons, I am in favor of a "fairness doctrine" for bloggers that would prohibit arbitrary censorship of blog visitors' comments --

(1) Comment space on blogs is virtually unlimited.

(2) The more popular blogs have become major de facto public forums.

(3) Blogs are being authoritatively cited by court opinions, scholarly journal articles, the official news media, etc., making fairness and accuracy of critical importance.
8.13.2007 11:35pm

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