....European governments may even filter extremist material so that their citizens cannot access it. Or ISPs may end up doing their job for them. As noted above, ISPs are exempt from the protocol if they are unaware of hate speech they unwittingly host. But what if a complaint brings such speech to their attention? In that event, the prudent course for the ISP is to shut down the site, whether or not it truly fits within the protocol, and wait to see if the poster wins a court challenge.

Most ISPs expressly retain the right to remove harmful or offending material in their contracts with their customers, so for them deposting is the safest course: The customer, due to the contract, has no recourse, and the ISP then eliminates any risk.

....The European Court of Human Rights has held, for example, that a state's actions to restrict the right to freedom of expression may be justified when such ideas or expressions violated the rights of others. According, the ECHR is not thought to conflict with a number of laws that would never pass muster in the U.S., including laws in Spain, Germany and France outlawing Internet "racism" and denial of the Holocaust, and a U.K. law outlawing publication of material likely to incite racial hatred.

The depth of the contrast between U.S. and European law can be illustrated by the case of Gerhard Lauck. Lauck publishes Nazi newspapers and a Nazi Web site from Nebraska with impunity. The site is legal in the U.S., but it is illegal in Germany, which has laws against Nazi propaganda that apply to any Web site Germans can access, wherever it is located. (Jurisdiction over even those sites outside Germany was upheld in a December 2000 German case.)

While the U.S. may be horrified to become a haven for such cyberhatemongers as Lauck, it can at least be proud of being a haven for free speech at the same time. [CNN]