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12 Charleston L. Rev. 1 (2017-2018)
Averting Your Eyes in the Information Age: Online Hate Speech and the Captive Audience Doctrine

handle is hein.journals/charlwrev12 and id is 10 raw text is: 








          AVERTING YOUR EYES IN THE
 INFORMATION AGE: ONLINE HATE SPEECH
   AND THE CAPTIVE AUDIENCE DOCTRINE

                     Alexander Brown*


I. IN TR O D U CTIO N   ....................................................................  1
II. BACKGROUND CASE LAW ............................................... 15
III. IDENTIFYING INTERESTS ............................................. 17
     A . T he  H om e  ....................................................................   20
     B. The Internet and the Web ......................................... 23
IV. AVERTING YOUR EYES IN THE INFORMATION AGE .... 32
     A. Practically Helpless to Avoid Speech ......................... 32
     B. Unreasonable Burdens ............................................... 40
V . IM PLICA TIO N S  .................................................................... 49


                    I. INTRODUCTION


    There is growing interest in whether or not United States
First Amendment doctrine can, and should, accommodate certain
regulatory strategies for safeguarding the public from potentially
harmful online hate speech, or cyberhate.1 This article proposes
significant reforms of American free speech doctrine in relation to
cyberhate regulations by repurposing the captive audience
doctrine. According to this doctrine, it may be permissible, even
under the First Amendment, for governmental authorities to


*Reader in Political and Legal Theory, University of East Anglia (UEA), UK.
This Article is based on the paper I presented at a workshop on global
expressive rights organized by Susan Brison and Katharine Gelber at
Dartmouth College in spring 2015. I am very grateful for comments and
insights from all those who attended.
    1. See, e.g., DANIELLE KEATS CITRON, HATE CRIMES IN CYPBERSPACE (2014);
Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Hate Speech in Cyberspace, 49 WAKE
FOREST L. REV. 319 (2014); Julian Baumrin, Internet Hate Speech and the First
Amendment. Revisited, 37 RUTGERS COMPUTER & TECH. L.J. 223 (2011).

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