HUD Targets Hate Speech on the Internet

(March 20, 2000) The Department of Housing and Urban Development is taking action against hate speech on the Internet. HUD is conducting an investigation involving hate speech on the Internet by the Klu Klux Klan. HUD has also formed of a task force on the issue.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) hosted a meeting in New York City on Thursday, March 16, with representatives of groups and companies. HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo announced the formation of a task force on hate speech on the Internet. HUD will provide $200,000 to fund the task force.

Andrew Cuomo

"Housing discrimination is just as illegal in cyberspace as it is in our cities, our suburbs, and our rural areas," Andrew Cuomo said in a press release. "The Internet is no sanctuary from the rule of law."

The groups represented at the meeting included the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Internet Alliance, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the New York Urban League, Asian Americans for Equality, the Anti-Defamation League, the National YWCA, the Open Housing Center, the Long Island Association of AIDS Care, the National Puerto Rican Coalition, the American Jewish Congress, the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, the Fair Housing Council of New Jersey, and the Latino Commission on AIDS.

The companies represented at the meeting included Oxygen.com, iVillage, Earthweb, Juno, Jupiter Communications, Pseudo.com, E-SCORE, Politics.com, govWorks.com, and the Internet Alliance.

Lee Jones, a spokesman for HUD, told Tech Law Journal that "the task force is tasked with starting a conversation." However, no members have been appointed, no rules or regulations have been promulgated or proposed, and the task force has not been asked to prepare a report.

"We are not looking for regulation; we are not looking for legislation," said Jones.

	Jim Dempsey

Jim Dempsey, Senior Legal Counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, was present at the meeting. He told Tech Law Journal that this task force is not a threat to free speech. "There are sensitive First Amendment free speech issues here, and they recognize that."

"The message that I took away was a non-regulatory one."

"The Internet is not a law free zone," added Dempsey. "The laws that exist for off line behavior are adequate for on line behavior."

The meeting "was triggered by a specific case -- the Bonnie Jouhari case," Dempsey stated. " The Klu Klux Klan "used the Internet to spread hate against her."

The HUD press release details the acts of intimidation of Bonnie Jouhari by the KKK and its members. They threatened her in statements in a web site; they also telephoned, stalked, and photographed her.

Jouhari was a Fair Housing Specialist at the Reading-Berks Human Relations Council in Reading, Pennsylvania. She was also chairman of the Hate Crimes Task Force for Berks County, Pennsylvania, and served on the Governor's Interagency Task Force on civil tension.

Jouhari filed housing discrimination complaints with HUD. HUD is now acting on those complaints.