Censorship Bill Passes US Congress

Thursday, February 1, 1996 by Dave Winer.

I had a humor-filled DaveNet piece in the pipe when news came in that the Telecommunications Reform Bill, the first major rewrite of US communication law since the 1930s, had passed both houses of the US Congress. It passed the House this morning, by a vote of 414 to 16. It was voted on and passed by the Senate later today.

According to reports attributed to Reuters and the New York Daily News, and confirmed by CBS News, a measure was added to the House version of the bill which would make it illegal to transmit information about abortion thru the Internet.

Reports said that the abortion censorship measure was inserted by Republican Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois and it would classify such information as obscenity, making it illegal to send or receive it on a computer network.

If true, it's heavy stuff.

Stay tuned...

Dave Winer