[Muhammad Khan]
Censorship; Pros And Cons.
Internet censorship can be defined according to Poetker, (Para,1), as the “control of
information that can be viewed by the public on the Internet and can be carried out by
governments, institutions, and even private organizations.” Censored content consists of
copyrighted information, and harmful or sensitive content, among others. Besides the
government, the rights to censor contents on the internet could also lie on individuals and
organizations for societal or business moralities, or in fear of legal outcomes. The
participation of governments in censorship varies accounting to nations. Laws on censorship
can range from mild; moderately limiting information online, to severe; strictly limiting
access to information online depending on the nation in question. Censorship has been seen
as a topic with a lot of controversies for decades as many people try to weigh its importance
to society to its disadvantages in order to know the overall usefulness of this law. The law of
censorship has been accused of violating the rights of authors given to them by the first
constitution and American Library association, many times it has proven to restrict important
and moral informations that have to do with religion, beliefs, and cultures, it is also seen as a
law that limits the right to free speech and one which is quite expensive to put into effect.
However, even with all these identified wrongs of censorship, some believe that the
importance of censorship comes into play as it stops the spread of fake news, reduces identity
theft, limits access to dangerous activities and establishes limits to common sense.
Internet censorship in the United States is one of the first with mild control in the
world. This is because the first amendment rights of her constitution, protects the access to
online activities of the people from this law. However, when it comes to publishing certain
materials online that contains traces of libel, child pornography, and intellectual property, the
first amendment does not protect such content from the law of censorship. According to
Poetker, even as the internet in the United States is mildly censored, it is also severely
regulated causing private organizations and citizen to initiate the law on censorship on such
contents on their own. When it comes to the importance of censorship, one importance this
law is commonly associated with is the ability of censorship to establish a limit for common
sense. There are a lot of contents and activities going on in the internet that should never have
been allowed to see the light of day in the first place. Challenges and contents that disrupt
society’s balance such as the momo challenge that brainwashed children into committing
murder and the activities of terrorist groups such as ISIL and ISIS to push their agendas,
recruit new members, threaten nations and disrupt world peace. The censorship law plays a
good role at being effective when it comes to these kinds of contents, making sure that they
are controlled and the peace of the society, stabilized.
Censorship is also used to reduce access to harmful activities. Even as the internet is
being used by many, there are a lot of dark webs with dangerous sites that are in no way,
beneficial to the progress of people or nations. Sites that are attributed to fraud, organ sales,
sex trafficking, human trafficking, child pornography and so many others can be found on the
internet, causing a lot more harm and good. This is where the importance of censorship
comes into play as this law, tries to fight against this dark web and its consumption by the
public in order to ensure the stability, exhalation of the law and protection of citizens from
these horrific sites. Lastly, another importance of censorship is its ability to regulate the
spread of fake news. Many times, the media has been identified to be a perpetrator of fake
news. Used for political gains in today’s world and ruled by biases, it is safe to say that the
media can no longer be trusted to deliver appropriate and accurate news for the consumption
of the public. “While disinformation has circulated through media since the early days of
mass communication, scholars and pundits have argued that recent years mark ‘the rise of the
misinformation society’ (Pickard, p. 119). “Politicians’ opportunities to disseminate
disinformation directly to the public, bypassing the media's gatekeeping and their editorial
scrutiny, have increased with the rise of social media and the possibilities they afford and
with a weakening of factual accountability” (Graves and Wells, 2019, p. 42). Censorship has
been identified to play a role in the control and elimination of such fake news even before
they get to the public.
Looking at the bad aspects of censorship, it can be seen that censorship restricts too
much information. Many times, in its attempt to curb the spread of fake news, censorship also
disregards and restricts the real and authentic ones. It restricts important moral informations
as well that have to do with culture, and religion according to Shishkina, (pg1). It also
censors free speech. In several instances, private and even government bodies have been seen
to manipulate their rights in the control of internet contents to censor out contents that do not
favor them. They take down articles and books written by people that criticizes their
administration or puts them at risk for public scorn thereby taking away the rights of these
authors to free speech according to Iniesta and Serna (pg 1) which was given to them by the
first and fourteenth amendments. The cost of controlling contents on the internet is quite
expensive according to Poetker. This cost covers the payment of the world force required,
survey of internet users and other associated costs which takes a huge chunk out of the total
income of either the government or the private individuals initiating the census.
Works Cited
Graves, L., & Wells, C. (2019). From information availability to factual accountability. In J.
Katz & K. K. Mays (Eds.), Journalism and truth in an age of social media (pp. 39–57).
Oxford University Press
Pickard, V. Media failures in the age of Trump. The Political Economy of Communication,
4(2). (2016). http://polecom.org/index.php/polecom/article/viewFile/74/264
Poetker, Bridget. How Internet Censorship Affects You (pros + cons). Learning hub. (2019).
https://learn.g2.com/internet-censorship?hs_amp=true
Serna, Francisco. & Iniesta, Javier. The delimitation of freedom of speech on the Internet: the
confrontation of rights and digital censorship. (2018).
Shishkina, Alisa.,& Issaev, Leonid. Internet Censorship in Arab Countries: Religious and
Moral Aspects. (2018). https://res.mdpi.com/d_attachment/religions/religions-0900358/article_deploy/religions-09-00358.pdf
Yariv Tsfati, H. G. Boomgaarden, J. Strömbäck, R. Vliegenthart, A. Damstra & E. Lindgren.
Causes and consequences of mainstream media dissemination of fake news: literature
review and synthesis, Annals of the International Communication Association, 44:2,
157-173, (2020). DOI: 10.1080/23808985.2020.1759443