Hate speech on the InternetI. Hate Speech on the Internet Generally, hate speech receives constitutional protection and is not prosecuted, which is why there are relatively few court cases addressing this issue on the Internet. For this reason, there are sites available on the Internet that contain people who discriminate in language due to their race or sexual orientation. These include the "Ku Klux Klan", the "Nazis", the "White Socialist Party", the "skinheads" or the "Aryan nation", for example, whose speeches are not directed at any particular person, therefore not punishable . Furthermore, the nature of this medium makes it difficult to trace the perpetrators of hate crimes, as websites are easily moved or abandoned when legal problems arise. In the case RAV v. St Paul, the Supreme Court has ruled that speech that encourages racially motivated violence can be punished. Therefore, threatening private messages involving racial epithets sent via the Internet to someone, as well as public messages on a website, are legally actionable.II. InternetAt the dawn of the new century, the rise of new media such as the Internet appears to be creating new questions about the limits of free speech. However, the problem of some free speech cases remains the same as it has for the last 100 years. The Internet is the result of a military program called "ARPANET", which began in 1969. ARPANET no longer exists and today the Internet is an international system. network of interconnected computers. The Internet is "a unique and completely new means of human communication worldwide". People can access the Internet from many different sources, several major national "online services" such as America Online or CompuServe provide access to their own networks and broader services...... middle of paper...... indlaw.com /expression"Hate crimes." http://ucl.boward.cc.fl.us"Hate Speech: The Speech That Kills." http//www.indexoncensorship.org “Indecency, Ignorance, and Intolerance: The First Amendment and the Regulation of Electronic Expression.” http://warthog.cc.wm.eduInternet law library. Available at: http://www.priweb.com"Legal Information Institute". www.law.edu/topics/communicationMiddleton, Kent R., Trager Robert and Chamberlin, Bill F. The Law of Public Communication (New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 2000."Pending Court Cases and Legislation." http:// www .nlp.cs.umass.edu/aw/ch13Perkins Coie LLP. www.perkinscoie.com"State Hate Crime Law." httpp://gsulaw.gsv.edu/lawland"Telecommunications and the First Amendment" Available at http /www.bsos.umd.edu"Terrorism on the Internet."