인터넷 악성 댓글에 대한 법적 규제와 표현의 자유

In the knowledge-based information society, the Internet is a powerful tool for communication in the cyberspace. Research into Internet communities and online behavior constituted one of the earliest and most dynamic fields of interest in the new field of Internet studies. Increasingly, scholars are examining the ways in which the Internet allows the hate movement to retrench and reinvent itself as a viable collective. The many electronic means avaliable to the movement- blogs, newsgroups, homepages, etc.- allows an ease of communication and dissemination of their views never before possible. Studies focused a range of issues including social order was possible in the mediated environments, the social and political dimensions of community, the impacts that online communities could have on their offline counterparts. The purpose of the present study was to explore the legal sanction against 'hate speech' and the 'freedom of expression' in the cyberspace. In the light of growing concern over the globalization of the use of the Internet as a form of mass communication, the intersection of 'hate speech' and free speech is alive and controversial in the arena of the Internet. Internet communication facilitates the creation of the collective identity that is so important to movement cohesiveness and knows no national boundaries. Consequently, it allows the hate movement to extend its collective identity internationally, thereby facilitating a potential global problems. Some scholars argue that stricter legislation threatens to curtail our hard won freedoms, while others suggest that ineffectual regulation fails to protect racial minority groups. Based upon a comprehensive literature review, three main topics were summarized as follows: (1) the development of information and communication technology (ICT) and the expansion of the freedom of expression in the cyberspace, (2) the possibilities and limitations of the Internet communication, netiquette, and 'hate speech,' and (3) 'hate speech' and its harm, and the sanction against 'hate speech' with legal system. As a consequence, the field has become both narrower and dominated by intractable problematic. Cyber-libertarians also advocate a free and unfettered cyberspace, unencumbered by regulation for Internet communication. Despite this ideal view, laws around world are asserting their right to enforce individual regimes of content regulation. However, we should consider the extraterritorial application of such legislation and postulate the need for re-balancing of the competing of freedom of speech as follows: First, the Internet is value-free in the technological side, so we need ethics for keeping the Internet productive and mutually beneficial for the freedom of expression. Second, for solutions for 'hate speech' with the Internet, we should search for rather ethical regulations by Netizen's autonomous than legal and institutional regulations by governmental interventions. And lastly, the government should support effective policies for educating media literacy to promote the netiquette of the Internet and settle it down citizen's media for effective communication tool.