It seems the Europeans are trying to stiffle what they determine to be "hate speech". The Bush Administration won't support that part of the Conventions on Cybercrime treaty.

Good.


"The important thing to realize is that the U.S. can't be a party to any convention that abridges a constitutional protection," said Drew Wade, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department.



Wade said that the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, prohibits the administration from endorsing last week's vote by the Council of Europe.

According to a long line of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, "hate speech" is generally protected by the First Amendment. There are relatively narrow exceptions that allow the government to ban threats, words designed to "incite an immediate breach of the peace" that are directed at an individual, and words that are intended to provoke "imminent lawless action."

Wade noted that the "hate speech" ban is "not actually tied to the convention. It doesn't require countries to accept the protocol to accept the convention itself." In other words, the United States could sign the treaty but reject the "hate speech" prohibitions.