A speech code is any rule or regulation that limits, restricts, or bans speech beyond the strict legal limitations upon
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
or
press
Press may refer to:
Media
* Print media or news media, commonly called "the press"
* Printing press, commonly called "the press"
* Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers
* Press TV, an Iranian television network
People
* Press (surname), a fam ...
found in the legal definitions of
harassment
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and moral ...
,
slander
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
,
libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
, and
fighting words
Fighting words are written or spoken words intended to incite hatred or violence from their target. Specific definitions, freedoms, and limitations of fighting words vary by jurisdiction. The term ''fighting words'' is also used in a general sens ...
. Such codes are common in the workplace, in universities,
[Uelmen, Gerald (1992). The Price of Free Speech: Campus Hate Speech Codes. *Issues in Ethics - V. 5, N. 2, Summer 1992. Murkkula Center For Applied Ethic]
/ref> and in private organizations. The term may be applied to regulations that do not explicitly prohibit particular words or sentences. Speech codes are often applied for the purpose of suppressing hate speech
Hate speech is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation". Hate speech is "usually thoug ...
or forms of social discourse thought to be disagreeable to the implementers.
Use of the term is in many cases valuable; those opposing a particular regulation may refer to it as a speech code, while supporters will prefer to describe it as, for example and depending on the circumstances, a harassment policy. This is particularly the case in academic
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
contexts.
Banned word
A banned word is one whose use is prohibited by law or culture or organization policy. An example would be the Ban Bossy campaign. Lake Superior State University
Lake Superior State University (colloquially Lake State, Lake Superior State, Soo Tech, and LSSU) is a public college in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. It is enrolls approximately 2,000 students. Due to its proximity to the Canadian border, and the ...
publishes an annual list of words that are banned because of misuse. Some companies, such as Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
, allow users to decide for themselves what words to ban from being used on their pages (e.g. in comments section The comments section is a feature on most online blogs, news websites, and other websites in which the publishers invite the audience to comment on the published content. This is a continuation of the older practice of publishing letters to the edi ...
s). Most often, banned words, or entire phrases, relate to Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements:
...
and racist
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
or sexist speech. The most stringent of such policies may include a ban on anything deemed offensive, such as ridicule against another person.
United States universities
In the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, the Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
has not issued a direct ruling on whether speech codes are unconstitutional, but has ruled against their implementation within public universities
A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national university ...
. However, the has struck down a speech code at the University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, indicating that broad speech codes seeking to prohibit hate speech
Hate speech is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation". Hate speech is "usually thoug ...
probably violate the First Amendment
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
('' Doe v. University of Michigan,'' 1989). Subsequent challenges against such language as part of harassment policies, diversity
Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to:
Business
*Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce
*Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers
* ...
mandates, and so forth instead of being self-identified as speech codes have generally succeeded to date. Nadine Strossen
Nadine Strossen (born August 18, 1950) is an American civil liberties activist who was president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from February 1991 to October 2008. A liberal feminist, she was the first woman to ever lead the ACLU. A ...
writes that in the 1980s, when the ACLU sued on the matter, "hate speech" codes were invariably struck down as unduly vague and overbroad (a key constitutional criterion), and all subsequent codes directed against specific viewpoints would fail under the same standard.
One web site describes behavior that speech codes are meant to prevent:
:Discriminatory harassment includes conduct (oral, written, graphic or physical) directed against any person or, group of persons because of their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran's status and that has the purpose or reasonably foreseeable effect of creating an offensive, demeaning, intimidating, or hostile environment for that person or group of persons.[
Today, most talk of speech codes is within institutional contexts and refer to colleges and refers to official lists and rules established by authorities, where speech codes are occasionally used by colleges and universities to suppress speech that others find offensive. ]Alan Charles Kors
Alan Charles Kors (born July 18, 1943) is Henry Charles Lea Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught the intellectual history of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has received both the Lindback Foundation Awar ...
and Harvey Silverglate
Harvey Allen Silverglate (born May 10, 1942) is an attorney, journalist, writer, and co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).
Silverglate was a member of the board of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civ ...
, in their work ''The Shadow University'', published in 1998, refer to a number of cases in which speech codes have been used by public and private universities to suppress academic freedom
Academic freedom is a moral and legal concept expressing the conviction that the freedom of inquiry by faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy as well as the principles of academia, and that scholars should have freedom to teac ...
, as well as the freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
, and deny due process
Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...
of law (for public institutions), or violate explicit and implicit guarantees of fairness declared or implied in a student's contract
A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...
of enrollment or a faculty member's contract of employment with the institution of higher education in question (at private institutions[For example, if a private institution declares or implies that their code of conduct will treat those subject to it fairly, then a court will require an institution to uphold their promises of fairness, under the ]implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing
In contract law, the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing is a general presumption that the parties to a contract will deal with each other honestly, fairly, and in good faith, so as to not destroy the right of the other party or parties ...
, even if the institution disclaims that it is a contract. Contrary to this, if an institution openly, willingly, and publicly declares their code of conduct is completely arbitrary and capricious, and discipline is carried out at the slightest whim of higher authorities, then no court will inquire as to how they conduct their business.).
One particular case, the University of Pennsylvania "Water Buffalo" case, highlighted reasons for and against speech codes and is typical of such cases. In the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
case, a freshman faced expulsion from that private school when he called African-American sorority members who were making substantial amounts of noise and disturbing his sleep during the middle of the night "water buffalo" (the charged student claimed not to intend discrimination, as the individual in question spoke the modern Hebrew language
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
, and the term "water buffalo", or "behema", in modern Hebrew, is slang for a rude or an insulting person; moreover, water buffalo
The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called the domestic water buffalo or Asian water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, North America, So ...
are native to Asia rather than Africa). Some saw the statement as racist while others simply saw it as a general insult. Questions were raised about how far was too far when interpreting and punishing statements like the one in question. The college eventually dropped the charges amid national criticism.[Downs, Donald (1993). Codes say darnedest things. Quill; Vol. 81 Issue 8, p19, October.]
Purposes
There are two distinct reasons given for the implementation of speech codes, most often given in the context of higher education institutions. The first is as follows, "First, to protect vulnerable students from threatening, truly harassing speech that amounts to 'fighting words,' which are not protected by the First Amendment".
The second reason is more abstract, leaving room for argument both for and against the reason. One author states, "Second, peech codesare linked to a broader ideological agenda designed to foster an egalitarian vision of social justice". Because many institutions hold such a view in their mission statements, the justification for a policy in line with the views of the institution comes quite naturally. However, opponents of speech codes often maintain that any restriction on speech is a violation of the First Amendment. Because words and phrases typically belonging in the hate speech category could also be used in literature, quoted for socially acceptable purposes or used out loud as examples of what not to say in certain situations, it can be argued that the words and phrases have practical, intrinsic value and therefore should not be banned.
Criticisms of Speech Codes
According to one scholar, hate speech complaints are up on campuses everywhere, pressuring universities to create speech codes of their own. He states:
: There were approximately 75 hate speech codes in place at U.S. colleges and universities in 1990; by 1991, the number grew to over 300. School administrators institute codes primarily to foster productive learning environments in the face of rising racially motivated and other offensive incidents on many campuses. According to a recent study, reports of campus harassment increased 400 percent between 1985 and 1990. Moreover, 80 percent of campus harassment incidents go unreported.[
Critics of speech codes such as the ]Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, is a non-profit civil liberties group founded in 1999 with the aim of protecting free speech rights on college campus ...
(FIRE) allege that speech codes are often not enforced impartially, but serve as a form of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination
Viewpoint discrimination is a concept in United States jurisprudence related to the First Amendment
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a par ...
, punishing those "whose speech does not meet their subjective standards of 'political correctness'", and feel that "Progress owards free speech rightsis endangered when schools attempt to use a charge of disruption as a pretext for censoring speech." Many who argue against speech codes cite former Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the Un ...
, believing that "The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think what we like and say what we think."
As of 2021, 21.3% of 478 schools surveyed by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, is a non-profit civil liberties group founded in 1999 with the aim of protecting free speech rights on college campus ...
maintain at least one policy that is considered to substantially restrict freedom of speech. This number is slowly declining however, with 2021 being the thirteenth year in a row that the percentage of schools holding such policies has decreased. On the other end of it, the number of universities that are committed to protecting free speech continues to go up, with 76 universities committing to this belief by 2021.
See also
* Anti-bias curriculum
The anti-bias curriculum is an activist approach to educational curricula which attempts to challenge prejudices such as racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, weightism, homophobia, classism, colorism, heightism, handism, religious discrimination an ...
* Inclusive language
Inclusive language avoids expressions that are considered to express or imply ideas that are sexist, racist, or otherwise biased, prejudiced, or insulting to any particular group of people and sometimes animals as well. Use of inclusive language ...
* First Amendment Center
The First Amendment Center supports the First Amendment and builds understanding of its core freedoms through education, information and entertainment.
The center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of free-expression issues, includin ...
* Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, is a non-profit civil liberties group founded in 1999 with the aim of protecting free speech rights on college campus ...
* Political correctness
''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...
* ''Urofsky v. Gilmore
''Urofsky v. Gilmore'', 216 F.3d 401 (4th Cir. 2000), is a case decided before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit which concerned the matter of professors challenging the constitutionality of Virginia law restricting access t ...
''
Bibliography
*
* Strossen, Nadine (2017)
Written testimony on ''Challenges to the Freedom of Speech on College Campuses''
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Speech Code
Freedom of expression
Censorship
Political terminology
Linguistic controversies
Criticism of academia