Should the internet be censored
Internet censorship could be done in varied forms, and it is executed with the aim of obfuscating information from the public in order to hide some truths. Generally, internet censorship helps put restrictions on the information that can be publicized or accessed from the internet. Government and other organizations utilize internet censorship to help in blocking access to copyrighted materials and information dangerous or highly sensitive content. Nevertheless, internet censorship can also be utilized as a propaganda strategy to help in promoting specific political and religious agendas. Before, the internet was majorly closely monitored through the internet community instead of the government and other official organizations. The main aim was to curb government interference to enhance freedom of speech and the lack of prejudice. Although these sentiments were reliable theoretically, the governments and the bodies have increased monitoring of the internet after the conclusion of the self-monitoring, which was never sufficient towards solving the emerging issues. Various examples of the problems include an increased criminal activity on the internet, internet evolution as a social phenomenon, the internet users diversity, and the associated advent of a wide range of the political doctrines discussed on the internet. In that regard, this paper is a discussion on whether the internet should be censored, of which its declaration is that the internet should be censored because of the following reasons.
The internet could prove to be vile place hence the need towards regulations and limiting. It is a dangerous area to read on, especially for the teenagers and the children in general, since they are likely to be exposed to materials and contents beyond their age. Even upon the most respectable mainstream news site, the web could be associated with highly dangerous individuals. For example, Redmiles, reveals that the open comment threads and the social media are poised through sexism, and racism has been the source of disorientation, and conflict among most of the world communities. Additionally, it is a vile place and therefore calls for censorship because particularly women have been going through the barrage of the abuses, alongside the threats of rape and murder. In most cases, these are threats that do not result from a single or two strangers but a swarm of individuals whose aim is just to push negative information and energy on other people’s walls (Redmiles, 2019). As revealed by Redmiles, this situation is also referred to as trolling, which is a behavior that can also be referred to as harassment. In an effort to offer a response towards the current round of threats, they have calls from the government and the civil communities to facilitate streamlining of the procedures abuse report and ways on how to provide internet censorship. My pronouncements are confirmed by a study conducted by the University of Haifa in the year 2012. The arguments are more likely to turn uncivil in a situation where participants may not be able to see one another. It has, therefore, proved to be a significant, endemic online problem. Therefore, there is a need to ensure internet censorship to safeguard and protect, especially social media. It is, therefore, clear evidence the internet is vile and may not be favorable for everyone.
Additionally, publishers may post information that is likely to violate the social norms that include violence obscenity and the most dangerous materials. As revealed by Ji, these materials are not favorable, especially to the children and the general public. Social media, powered by the internet, is used by hundreds of thousands of millions of people, including both the adults and the teens. Therefore, there is a need to control this huge number of people through internet censorship. As confirmed by Ji, the social norms assure a guideline and the structure of the appropriate behavior (Ji, 2017). Thus, the exposure of the adults and the young generation on violence and some other obscene materials is likely to have an effect on their behaviors hence the need for censorship of the internet. It tends to damage the social relationship. This is particularly correlated with the loneliness and social isolation, a perfect recipe for social damages. There is negative behavior likely to be triggered through the internet, such as cyber-stalking, cyber-bullying, and online predation. These are all challenges and the social norms that could arise as a result of a lack of internet censorship. Additionally, there are unlimited materials posted on the internet, whereby some appear effective, while others tend to be dangerous for consumption. There is a need to ensure censorship to help regulate the materials exposed to people for consumption. Moreover, individuals’ exposure to the internet, such as violent content and scenes, is likely to make them behave aggressively and in a more violent manner. For example, children are likely to embrace the scripts involving violent behaviors, which they may observe from the internet, alongside their related emotional reactions, and their social cognition. However, it is the reason I feel internet censorship should be adopted as a way of protecting all people against the violence that tends to degrade their social norms.
Internet censorship is a favorable move because; it helps towards the protection of the children against viewing violence that could be harmful once consumed. According to Roberts, the government has been thinking about how to put restrictions on the internet; they are much worried about children gaining access to inappropriate materials. Exposure to dangerous content, especially for the children, forms empirical evidence, which reveals that it affects their cognitive development depending on an individual and the circumstance. There is a major depiction of the violence on the internet, especially revealing rape and murder. Therefore, according to the study that was carried out by Roberts, reveals that a huge exposure of the children to the internet where there is massive content revolving around violence is likely to increase their aggressive behavior on one another (Roberts, 2018). Therefore, it is the reason I feel there is a need to curb the rise of violence in society, through protecting children against gaining contact with violence depicted on the internet media. This can only be executed through internet censorship as a form of regulatory measure.
The proponents entrusted with the task of internet censorship have confirmed that the move to implement restriction of the online content is closer to the policing of the platform. I can’t agree with this statement anymore because it is the ultimate method of ensuring reliable, safe information for all the ages is provided to the internet followers. In this case, policing means regulation and close monitoring of the kind of information posted released to the general public on the internet. This would ensure that every individual on various age brackets with the appropriate content that would never leave them negatively influenced. According to Robert’s revelations, the unfiltered public search over the internet offers everyone accesses to highly dangerous and morally degrading materials. It is the reason I feel policing under internet censorship would a great deal a method of ensuring raunchy immoral content do not find their way to the general public through the internet. Additionally, there is a dire need to push for the implementation of the censorship because it offers the general society an avenue of accessing the most illicit drugs, human trafficking, child pornography, sex trafficking, and several others. As revealed by Shen, these are immoral and unscrupulous materials that should be censored as they only contribute to the social norms (Shen, 2017). The mind of individual works in line with more incitement directed to it and, therefore, the need for trails. In my view, this kind of information, if not retracted from the internet or completely barred, high chances are tending on a high society influenced by the internet content. For example, child pornography is likely to make a kid develop sexual urge at a lower age likely to avert their behavior and morality while relating to others. Therefore, censorship as a way of policing will significantly ensure children and the adult do no develop a liking for weird behaviors such as sex trafficking, human trafficking, use of illicit drugs and several other social misfit behaviors. After all, if effective monitoring of the internet is done, they will not contact this type of information from the internet.
Internet regulation is highly important, considering the dramatic increase in identity theft. In reference to Schell, during the year 2016, there were at least 15.4 million people that had reported cases related to identity theft. This usually occurs where the fraudster gains access to individual, personally identifiable information to execute the fraud. Therefore, the more people spend time on the internet, the more they are likely to be tricked into sharing information about themselves (Schell, 2014). It is a highly serious crime that mainly aims to obtain financially or one’s personal information. In this case, the obtained content is used for personal gain often carried out by selling or purchases someone’s identity or their credit card online to the highest bidder. Therefore, there is a need for ensuring censorship since it is the only effective method of protecting individuals against online fraudsters. In my view, also people should be aware of the online fraud executed through pharming, phishing, insecure websites, malicious software, and several other methods before protection is accorded to them. It is the reason I feel there is a need to adopt internet censorship as a strategy of people’s information against online fraudsters.
Differently, those against internet censorship move claim that the internet has proved to be an effective liberating tool, especially for individuals exposed in repressive societies. According to Crandall et al., majorly the social media have been utilized to castigate repressive and unruly behaviors extended by the various people in society. This is done through the identification of negative social vices not favorable to society (Crandall, 2007). Additionally, the internet is the only they utilize in order to secure information regarding their government and how public issues are handled by the government of the day. The internet has greatly helped keep most of the government workers on toes as it is used to castigating them when they are on the wrong side of the services’ operations. In my view, it a good reason to ensure there is no censorship of the internet as it is saving the general governance of various countries. According to Fangen, &Holter, people have a right to information, and therefore, with the development of technology and increasing use of the internet, there is a need to get rid of any form of censorship. As confirmed by internet censorship would contribute to the collapse of the economies, reduce millions of jobs, and some other negative situations (Fangen, &Holter, 2020). As confirmed by Fangen, &Holter, a huge number of the world population is currently working over the internet, which means any slight move to restrict their operations will leave a huge number of them without jobs. In my view, for example, the American government needs to comes with restriction content available on the internet without affecting the jobs. A huge number of the world population feels that the internet assures unlimited information, hence eliminating internet censorship. All in all, I would still hold on to my position that internet censorship is executed since a huge portion of the general population only uses it to obtain harmful content.
In conclusion, there is a need to look at this question from a more moral perspective critically and the damage the internet poses to society. There is a need to sensitize the general society on the need for internet censorship. In my view, most of the people could be against it as they lack the general knowledge on why it should be done. Therefore, the responsible authorities should consider internet censorship because it will protect children against violence and harmful content such as violence and obscene materials, alongside several other reasons, extensively discussed.
References
Ji, Q. (2017). A comparative view of censored and uncensored political discussion: The case of Chinese social media users. In Handbook of research on citizen engagement and public participation in new media (pp. 269-282).IGI Global.
Redmiles, E. M. (2019). Should I Worry?. A Cross-Cultural Examination of Account Security Incident Response.In IEEE Security and Privacy.
Roberts, M. E. (2018). Censored: distraction and diversion inside China’s Great Firewall.Princeton University Press.
Fangen, K., &Holter, C. R. (2020). The battle for truth: How online newspaper commenters defend their censored expressions. Poetics, 80, 101423.
Shen, F. (2017). Internet use, freedom supply, and demand for internet freedom: A cross-national study of 20 countries. International journal of communication, 11, 22.
Crandall, J. R., Zinn, D., Byrd, M., Barr, E. T., & East, R. (2007, October). ConceptDoppler: a weather tracker for internet censorship. In ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (pp. 352-365).
Schell, B. H. (2014). Internet Censorship: A Reference Handbook: A Reference Handbook. Abc-Clio.