Cyber Harassment and the Scope of Freedom of Speech

Abstract

Cyber harassment in its various forms imposes substantial costs on many persons. Discussion of those costs is plainly important in mobilizing support for legal and cultural responses to cyber harassment. It is important to recognize, however, that most forms and instances of cyber harassment do not implicate any of the commonly cited reasons for constitutionally protecting speech in the first place. Where any such reasons are in fact implicated in the cyber harassment cases, it is typically the meaningful autonomy and self-realization interests of the targets, rather than those of the harassers, that are at significant risk.