Blair is planning to send some of his top spin doctors to see how the Americans use the internet to meet political ends.

They censor it and control it!

A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE from THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY (CDT) OCTOBER 5th 1999

CONTENTS:

(1) Campaign Finance Rules Threaten Speech on the Internet: CDT Report

(1) CAMPAIGN FINANCE RULES THREATEN SPEECH ON THE INTERNET: CDT REPORT

The rapidly growing use of the Internet by ordinary citizens to express political opinions and participate in electoral activities - one of the medium's most promising aspects - is on a collision course with federal campaign finance law.

The law regulating contributions to federal elections was designed for the centralized, scarce, expensive and gatekeeper-dominated media of radio, television and print. In contrast, the Internet is uniquely decentralized, abundant, inexpensive, interactive and user-controlled. The Internet supports a diversity and abundance of speech not possible in other media - much of it spontaneous and independent from campaign committees and the political parties. Many innovative efforts are underway to revitalize citizen involvement in the electoral process through the Internet.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the unique qualities of the Internet entitle it to the highest free speech protection under the Constitution's First Amendment. However, initial efforts by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to apply existing campaign finance law to Internet communications have yielded troubling results, threatening to burden - even silence - the voice of average citizens in American political life.

CDT has examined the FEC's actions and recommends a fundamentally less restrictive approach in its recent report, "Square Pegs and Round Holes: Applying the Campaign Finance Law to the Internet - Risks to Free Expression and Democratic Values."