Capital approach to online hate

The growing problem of xenophobic material being disseminated online, either through email or through websites, has engendered two quite different approaches to tackling the problem according to The Register. While the EU aims to make online publishing of racist material illegal -- this would be in line with German and French bans on Holocaust denial -- the U.S. attitude is rather different: "Rather than fear the purveyors of hate, let us confront them in the marketplace of free ideas." It is true to say that legislation may not prevent racists making use of the web, but this kind of capitalist approach has never worked either. The web should not be reduced to a market and racism is not a vertical. It seems that some people will view everything in terms of money and power and call it freedom, while disenfranchising those who want to make the web an inclusive and informed community.