Beyond Brandenburg: First Amendment Incitement Standards and the Challenge of Internet Speech

Eric Kasper and JoAnne Sweeny eds., Fight Like Hell: Free Speech and Incitement in the Twenty-First Century (SUNY Press 2024)

28 Pages Posted: 1 Mar 2024

Date Written: February 1, 2024

Abstract

This paper argues that the existing standards for incitement that derive from Brandenburg v Ohio are inadequate in dealing with incitement in cyberspace. The idea that a new medium of communication calls for new developments in First Amendment doctrine is not new. For example, the rise of broadcast media (in the form of radio) led the Supreme Court to develop new rules about the regulation of content that was “indecent” but not “obscene,” meaning that it was inappropriate for children but protected against regulation with respect to adults. Because the radio was an “intrusive” medium the Court ruled that the FCC could ban indecent materials during daylight hours. FCC v. Pacifica (1978).ix Thus far, however, the Court has not yet dealt with the peculiar characteristics of the Internet and the adjustments to traditional doctrines that are called for as a result. In this chapter we describe first the requirements of the Brandenburg test in terms of an "ideal Brandenburg scenario" defined in relations of space, time, speaker-listener interaction. We then show why this model is ill-suited to deal with inciting speech on the internet by drawing on the model of "stochastic" incitement. Finally, we offer suggestions for modifications to the Brandenburg standard that would allow for better regulation of potentially inciting speech occurring on the internet, including specific suggestions for modifications to the immunity provisions of section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Keywords: Incitement, First Amendment, free speech, Brandenburg, Communications Decency Act, internet, social media

Suggested Citation

Schweber, Howard and Anderson, Rebecca J, Beyond Brandenburg: First Amendment Incitement Standards and the Challenge of Internet Speech (February 1, 2024). Eric Kasper and JoAnne Sweeny eds., Fight Like Hell: Free Speech and Incitement in the Twenty-First Century (SUNY Press 2024), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4715609

Howard Schweber (Contact Author)

University of Wisconsin-Madison ( email )

716 Langdon Street
Madison, WI 53706-1481
United States

Rebecca J Anderson

Independent

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