DECENCY ACT PROTESTED ON LINE\Microsoft's Bill Gates signs on to event held worldwide.

Byline: Yardena Arar Daily News Staff Writer

Cyber-celebrity Bill Gates joined astronomers in Russia, students in Germany and hundreds of other Internet denizens Thursday in an on-line protest over censorship provisions of the newly passed federal Telecommunications Act.

Participants in "24 Hours of Democracy" were invited to express their concerns and feelings in essays, either on the project's own web site (http://www.hotwired.com/staff/userland/24/) or their own. The essays were all linked to the "24 Hours" site, reachable by links on hundreds of corporate and individual home pages.

At issue is a section of the new law making it illegal to transmit "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent" material on line with intent to harass, and another outlawing discussion of certain abortion issues. Both already have been challenged in court, and the Justice Department has said it will not enforce these provisions while the cases are pending.

Critics say the law, intended to keep the Internet clean for kids, will have a chilling effect on all on-line communication.

"We can't turn our heads and ignore that which can damage our kids," Gates wrote. "But we also have a national interest in freedom of expression."

Computer systems consultant Bruce Wenholz of Burbank wrote that he had given his two grown sons Internet accounts for Christmas and hoped they'd enjoy the same freedom of expression he had.

"After all, there is nothing that is not indecent to someone," Wenholz wrote.

The protest was organized by David Winer, a columnist for the on-line publication HotWired, in response to the huge volume of e-mail he received after the bill was passed.

Since he couldn't do anything with all the e-mail, "I felt sad for the people who were writing it," Winer said. That led to the idea of a dedicated electronic soapbox on the issue.