Assessing Rights in their Contemporary ‘Digital Age’, fitting old standard into their new medium: An investigation into the need for re-evaluation of rights in their contemporary age through the exploration of Free Speech on the internet

Central Thesis:
We have entered a ‘Digital Age’ new and peculiar to us and as such our basic system of rights needs to be updated to accommodate for this new age. The investigation into free speech on the internet provides compelling insight into this claim, with free speech doctrine not only being proved ineffective and outdated on the online medium but actually, I will argue, free speech is in danger.

“The world will not stand still and let us enjoy our freedoms. It will continually make itself anew, and as it does, we must consider the ever new methods by which it may be augmented or curtailed” Balkin (2001)