5.4.5.3   Limiting Free Speech to Protect the Rights of Others

(This is an archived page, from the Patterns of Power Edition 3 book.  Current versions are at book contents).

The regulations already referred to in the Economic Dimension include prevention of cheating (3.3.1.2) and consumer protection (3.3.1.3).  These form part of the law, and they are examples of restrictions to the freedom of speech in exchange for the benefit to the economy and for the protection of other people.

Other people’s rights can also be affected by intimidation: it can be used to prevent them from voting, for example, or from entering some buildings or streets.  There is a strong case for a legal ban on such intimidation, even though it is technically a constraint on the aggressor’s freedom of speech.

Online abuse, by Internet 'trolls', has become a serious problem.  Women in particular receive a lot of abuse, which is intended to intimidate them and deter them from free speech.  A Prospect article by Cathy Newman, In 2019 we can defeat the online trolls, noted that “[t]he Labour MP Jess Phillips revealed earlier this year that she had 600 rape threats in a single night”.  Such threats should be illegal, since rape itself is illegal.  There are practical difficulties in identifying some of those responsible, but the attempt should be made – and the Prospect article also made the comment that "we need social media companies to clean up their act. The tech wizards running these behemoths surely have the capacity and algorithms to root out the abusers.”