The New Wave of Speech and Privacy Developments in Cyberspace

As with any other medium of information, the Internet has the potential to be used as a tool for businesses, individuals, and government to peer into people\u27s personal lives. Conversely, many are concerned that the Internet can also be used to deliver objectionable or obscene information to minors. These concerns fuel the ongoing debate over whether and how to regulate the Internet to protect the privacy and speech concerns implicated by its many uses. Congress, the courts, the European Community, and a coalition of Internet industry members have taken several decisive steps in an effort to focus the ever-changing policy implications related to privacy and speech on the Internet. This article provides a brief overview of these recent developments as they fit into the ongoing policy debate on speech and privacy issues on the Internet