Online speech and democratic culture: a comparison of freedom of online speech between South Korea and the United States

Abstract

Civil libertarian doctrine which was dominant during the twentieth century argued that the main goal of freedom of speech was to ensure that the public would be well-informed and actively engage in public deliberation. A literal extension of this claim to the Internet age often justifies the regulation of online speech under the assumption that harmful communication undermines the public interest. This study challenges civil libertarianism and proposes a new thesis of freedom of online speech, which posits that online speech should be understood in terms of a democratic culture where every individual participates freely and without restraints in the process of meaning making that constitute her/ him as an autonomous individual. Based on such a theoretical concept, this study identifies three important aspects of online speech freedom – unfettered speech, anonymous speech, and participatory speech – and then compares the status of online speech between South Korea and the United States. This research suggests that a society should understand the unique nature of online speech and then arrange the legal system to fit into it.