Should Hate Speech Be Allowed on the Internet? A Reply to Raphael Cohen-Almagor

Abstract

In his recent article, “Holocaust Denial is a Form of Hate Speech,” Raphael Cohen-Almagor argues that so-called “revisionists” and others who deny the historical reality of Hitler’s attempt to wipe out European Jewry should be barred from the Internet, their websites dismantled and their pages removed from Facebook and other social networking sites. I maintain that the argument he makes is inconsistent with his professed commitment to the liberal free speech principle, which allows for the suppression of speech only when it is the cause of grave and demonstrable injury.