Page 354 - Law and the Media

The Law in the United States of America
Racial hatred
It is not possible to access the Internet without an Internet service provider. As a result,
Internet service providers have been targeted by individuals and action groups in relation to
racial hatred. In 2001, AOL was sued in an Illinois district court for breach of its terms of
service by a Muslim who alleged that the company failed to remove anti-Islamic hate speech
posted in Muslim-interest Internet chat rooms after he had repeatedly alerted the company to
its presence.

Problematic issues arise where material posted on the Internet is accessed in other countries.
In 2000, an anti-racism group in Paris sought an injunction in a French court against Yahoo!
prohibiting Internet users in France from accessing a web site hosted by Yahoo! that
auctioned Nazi memorabilia. Although the site was not available on Yahoo!’s French-
language portal yahoo.fr, it was available on Yahoo.com. Yahoo.com is based in the United
States but is easily accessible to Internet users in France. Yahoo! defended the proceedings
on the grounds that the Yahoo.com service is governed by the law of the United States, and,
as a result auctions of Nazi material could not be prevented because of the constitutional
right to freedom of speech in the United States.

The French court held that Yahoo! had to respect French laws prohibiting the exhibit or sale
of objects that incite racial hatred. It granted the injunction. Yahoo! issued proceedings in
United States on the issue of whether foreign countries have jurisdiction over the domestic
activities of United States companies and material published on American web sites. A
United States judge ruled that he could hear the case. On 7 November 2001, a District Judge
in California held that the First Amendment right to freedom of speech was the dominant
legal consideration and ruled that the order made by the French court was inconsistent with
United States law. However, the anti-racism group has appealed the judgment. The case will
have a considerable impact on the issue of foreign jurisdiction over unlawful material on the
Internet.

Convention on cyber-crime
In an effort to develop co-ordinated law on the possession on obscene material on the
Internet, the Council of Europe has drawn up a convention on cyber-crime which was
adopted on 8 November 2001. Although the United States is a non-member state, it has been
invited to become involved with the convention.

21.5 Invasion of privacy

21.5.1 General principles

Unlike the English law, the law of the United States has a well established tort of invasion
of privacy which encompasses both common law principles and constitutional requirements
relating to privacy.
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