Sympathy for the Cyberbully: How the Crusade to Censor Hostile and Offensive Online Speech Abuses Freedom of Expression

by Arthur S. Hayes

Overview

In the first systematic account of judicial rulings striking down cyberbullying laws in the United States and Canada, Sympathy for the Cyberbully offers an unapologetic defense of online acid-tongued disparagers and youthful and adult sexters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433132117
Publisher:	Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
Publication date:	07/31/2017
Series:	Communication Law , #6
Edition description:	New
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.86(h) x (d)

About the Author

Arthur S. Hayes, J.D., is Associate Professor of Communications & Media Studies at Fordham University. He is the author of Mass Media Law: The Printing Press to the Internet (Peter Lang, 2013) and Press Critics Are the Fifth Estate: Media Watchdogs in America (2008).

Table of Contents

Preface – Acknowledgment – Anti-Cyberbullying Laws: A Sober Analysis through the Moral Panic Theory Lens – Cyberbullying and Free Speech – The Unnecessary and Unjust Creation of Virtual Juvenile Delinquents – “Enclaves of Totalitarianism” – Censorship Redux: The 21st Century Attack on the First Amendment Right of Public Criticism by the Use of Cyberharassment, Cyberstalking and Online Impersonation Laws – Image Control: Who Loses When Teen Sexting and Revenge Porn Are Criminalized? – The Short Life and Quick Death of the First Cyberbullying Law in Canada (August 6, 2013–December 10, 2015) – Cases Index – Subject Index.

Editorial Reviews

Cyberbullying, sexting, and revenge pornography have strained robust free speech principles in the United States and elsewhere. Arthur S. Hayes provides an important resource for understanding the challenges the dark underbelly of Internet communications have presented to courts and legislators, detailing how well-intentioned policymakers may have overreached in their efforts to protect victims in ways that threaten speech that is legitimate, and in some cases, valuable. Rich details of cases and controversies arising in the past decade illustrate the difficult tradeoffs in emergent online speech jurisprudence.” Daxton Stewart, Associate Dean and Associate Professor, Texas Christian University; Editor of <Social Media and the Law: A Guidebook for Communication Students and Professionals> (2013)

From the Publisher