One thing most bloggers do not realize, however, is that the protection of free speech does not extend to privately owned websites. In the United States, at least, business owners can mandate whatever speech and conduct you like on private property. So unless your site is funded by the government, as a blogger you can make whatever rules you like.

Most sites don’t want to go overboard with this or they risk angering readers, squelching a blog’s sense of community, and killing people’s inclination to comment or interact … but some common sense rules about courtesy are perfectly acceptable, no matter how adamantly someone might try to argue that they should be allowed to offend your readers in the name of free speech.