Censorship in the Blogosphere?

Wired Magazine has this extract from H.R. 1966, introduced by Representative Linda Sanchez as the "Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act."  The part quoted says:

(a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

(b) As used in this section —

(1) the term ‘communication’ means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user’s choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received; and

(2) the term ‘electronic means’ means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones and text messages.

Up front, the suicide of Megan Meier, a 13 year old who was being bullied, is terrible. Conversely, censorship is not the way to correct this problem.  Censorship will only allow additional people to bully others.  Just look at Canada and the attack on, inter alia, Mark Steyn.

The Wired item can be found here.

Here is Ms Sanchez' defense of her position in The Huffington Post.

Free speech preserves democracy.

Regards  —  Cliff

PS:  It has nothing to do with this issue per se, but with the decennial federal census due next year, it is interesting to think about how our nation will once again abuse reapportionment.  Look at Ms Sanchez' district.  Not quite a perfect "U".  For a year I lived in this district, a long time ago.