I wrote a book review of Cass Sunstein's 2007 Republic.com 2.0 that appears in the February issue of the German Law Journal. Although I enjoyed the original Republic.com when it came out in 2001, and it seemed particularly relevant in the period immediately after 9/11, the new version seems out of date and incomplete. It doesn't even mention virtual worlds, or new websites designed to provide transparency in the democratic process, e.g. Maplight.org. What really bothered me most about it was that Sunstein does not seem to "walk the talk" in the sense that although the book is about the need for being exposed to opposing viewpoints, he does not bother to cite many of his critics. At least, though, Sunstein deserves some credit for withdrawing the misguided policy proposal in the original book for legislation requiring cross-links between websites with opposing viewpoints. In addition to being unconstitutional and unenforceable in a practical sense, it would tend to have a chilling effect on freedom of expression in the blogosphere. As I pointed out in my book review, even the European Parliament declined to adopt such a law in its recently passed Directive covering the Internet, despite the long European tradition of right of reply in the broadcasting industry. Basically, since the monthly costs of maintaining a blog are miniscule (about the price of a jumbo cafe latte), the solution for someone who disagrees with an opinion expressed on a blog, and is blocked from commenting on it, is start up their own blog.
