by Charles Levendosky

About the author: Charles Levendosky is the editorial page director of the Star-Tribune in Casper, Wyoming.

Sex and lurking sexual predators aren't the only worries people have about the Internet. Web sites that blaze with hate and bigotry have also come under fire recently. And unfortunately, there are those who would hack a hunk out of the First Amendment in order to ban such sites.

Hate Speech on the World Wide Web

Hate speech on the Internet has grown rapidly—through Web sites, e-mail, bulletin boards and chat rooms—according to a study published by the Anti- Defamation League last year. The ADL monitors the Internet looking for anti- Semitic speech propagated by neo-Nazi, white supremacist groups. In the study, "High-Tech Hate: Extremist Use of the Internet," the ADL notes that hate Web sites more than...