03/02/2020 Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 117 S.Ct. 2329, 138 L.Ed.2d 874 (1997) offensive" material on the Internet is driving countless citizens away from the medium because of the risk of exposing themselves or their children to harmful material. We find this argument singularly unpersuasive. The dramatic expansion of this new marketplace of ideas contradicts the factual basis of this contention. The record demonstrates that the growth of the Internet has been and continues to be phenomenal. As a matter of constitutional tradition, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, we presume that governmental regulation of the content of speech is more likely to interfere with the free exchange of ideas than to encourage it. The interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship. For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is affirmed. It is so ordered. Notes 1 "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech." U. S. Const., Amdt. 1. 2 The Court made 410 findings, including 356 paragraphs of the parties' stipulation and 54 findings based on evidence received in open court. See 929 F. Supp. at 830, n. 9, 842, n. 15. 3 An acronym for the network developed by the Advanced Research Project Agency. 4 Id., at 844 (finding 81). 5 Id., at 831 (finding 3). 6 Id., at 835 (finding 27). 7 Id., at 842 (finding 74). 8 Id., at 836 (finding 36). 9 "Web publishing is simple enough that thousands of individual users and small community organizations are using the Web to publish their own personal `home pages,' the equivalent of individualized newsletters about the person or organization, which are available to everyone on the Web." Id., at 837 (finding 42). 10 Id., at 838 (finding 46). 11 Id., at 844 (finding 82). 12 Ibid. (finding 86). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/96-511.ZO.html 21/29