OKLAHOMA CITY: AFTER THE BOMBING : Hate Speech on Internet Called Protected by Constitution

The unrestricted nature of the Internet worldwide computer network allows the spread of materials such as hate speech and instructions on bomb-making, but most of those materials are protected by the First Amendment, witnesses told a Senate panel Thursday.

Appearing at a hearing convened in response to the Oklahoma City bombing, civil liberties experts and a spokesman for an interactive media association said anxiety about the activities of terrorists and anti-government activists does not justify a crackdown on computer networks.

In any case, they told members of a Senate subcommittee on terrorism, it is nearly impossible to control communication on computer networks, which are open to anyone who has a computer linked to a telephone line.

But advocates of increased controls, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), argue that the First Amendment doesn’t bar increased federal monitoring of hate speech and violent materials on the Internet.

“I believe there is a difference between free speech and teaching someone how to kill,” Feinstein said.

Frank Tuerkheimer, a University of Wisconsin law professor and former U.S. attorney, said banning Internet postings on bomb-making would be futile because those who want the information to commit terrorism are unlikely to go to the Internet, where they may be traced.

Instead, they would more likely go to a library and read easily available articles on explosives, Tuerkheimer said, displaying a Department of Agriculture manual that describes their use to remove tree stumps and a lengthy Encyclopaedia Brittannica entry with details on explosives manufacturing.

Along with bomb-making instructions, some Internet postings tell how to form guerrilla cells and how to harm federal agents, according to Deputy Assistant Atty. Gen. Robert Litt.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which monitors hate groups, quoted one message that said: “I want to make bombs and kill evil Zionist people in the government. Teach me. . . . Feed me your wisdom, oh great one.”

Computer users also can download the Militia of Montana’s manual, which counsels “urban guerrillas” to read Che Guevara, buy guns anonymously and avoid triggering government attention with large bank transactions.

Racist magazines and cartoons also are on-line.

“We’re seeing old hate materials taken off car windshields and locker rooms and put on the Internet,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center. “Here is a great marketing tool to get into the mainstream of America.”

Hier called for greater government investigation of threats and hate speech on the Internet. He also called for a voluntary ban on hate and violence messages by private computer networks to help “marginalize” the hate groups.

Litt said current law probably allows federal law enforcement to monitor such public postings, but the FBI does not regularly do so.

Laws do allow prosecution of people who use the Internet to plan a crime, incite imminent violence or help someone commit a specific crime, Litt said.

But other speech is protected by the First Amendment. Knowing this, most people posting bomb-making materials add the line, “solely for informative purposes,” Litt said.

Litt said the posting of anonymous messages, which can be done on the Internet, creates difficulties in tracing threats or terrorist information. The government might have to develop technology to trace their authors, he said.