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Leaving aside the issue of whether the comments about Arata and Branham were grounded in hostility toward their gender (rather than hostility toward them as individuals), it seemed clear that what the OCR wants to ban here is not "written conduct" but speech. By classifying it as "conduct," the OCR hoped to bypass the First Amendment's protections.

— Mike Godwin

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As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

The remedy for the abuse of free speech is more speech.

In short, individual freedom of speech leads to a stronger society. But knowing that principle is not enough. You have to know how to put it to use on the Net.

Let today be the first day of a new American Revolution - a Digital Revolution, a revolution built not on blood and conflict, but on language and reason and our faith in each other.

The more you impose such liability, the greater the incentives you create for providers to become content police, and you undermine what for many and perhaps most users is the chief value of the Net: direct communication with the rest of the world.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Mike Godwin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.