Information Services: Bigots and the Bulletin Board

Adolf Hitler and Franklin Roosevelt used radio to spread very different messages, proving that powerful new media have the potential for evil or for good. That is a lesson Prodigy Services is learning all over again. The home- computer network, which IBM and Sears jointly operate, offers electronic bulletin boards on which subscribers can exchange typewritten comments. Last week the Anti-Defamation League, a national monitor of hate groups, disclosed that Prodigy boards are being used to promote anti-Semitic propaganda. Messages have appeared contending, among other things, that the murder of millions during the Holocaust is “fantasy and exaggeration.” Prodigy argues that such comments, however distasteful, fall within the realm of free expression. Even so, the company last week announced a restriction against “blatant expressions of bigotry” and will be meeting with the A.D.L. to discuss its complaints.