Have there been hate-related prosecutions or civil cases pursued for online legal violations?
Yes, but these online bigoted violators have been prosecuted or pursued under existing laws. On September 26, 1996 Richard Machado using a university computer sent a racist epithet filled threat to about sixty, mostly Asian, students at the University of California, Irvine where he had flunked out that warned, ” I personally will make it my life career to find and kill everyone of you personally. OK?????? That’s how determined I am. Get the f**k out, Mother F**ker (Asian Hater)” In February 1998, Machado became the first individual to be convicted in the United States of a so-called hate crime over the Internet. After a jury deadlock in his first trial a subsequent jury convicted Machado of violating 18 USC 245 for interfering with their right to attend a public college. Machado was sentenced to one year in prison. (United States v. Machado, 1998.) Less than a month later, in March 1998, 67 Latino students and employees of California State University, Los Angeles, MIT, and other instit
