Censorship on the Web

Ever since the beginning of mankind censorship has been in the background lurking. But with the creation of the internet it is even more accessible for others to try and censor what people are saying or what they have access to.

Censorship is the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are seen as "offensive" to another party.

One of the major censors would be governments. Whether we realize it or not our government has a lot of control and power over us. While the United States is not as controlled as North Korea, it still has minimal censorship for its citizens.

Is this right?

I personally think that censorship is bad but I do also understand that they are putting theses rules into place to try and protect us. I do think that pornographic sights and other inappropriate sites should be hidden or hard to find for children.

It is a good thing that people are censored against those but when it come to news outlets or getting information I think that you should be able to get information from where you choose.

Censorship puts a limit on our right of free speech in America and goes against the First Amendment of our Constitution. But not all countries are as fortunate as the United States where we have the right to free speech.

Below is a map showing the countries with the worst censorship in the world. Is there any country that comes as a surprise to you?

Image from Global Freedon of Expression

Another thing to think about when it comes to censorship is that our government is not the only group of people who censor what we are seeing.

For example, privately owned companies can also censor what their consumers are seeing. Google or Facebook are great examples of this.

When you "google" something the search engine finds matches to what you are searching, or are they? Are they showing you what they think would best suit your search or are they showing you the site they want you to look at?

Another thing that google or other private companies can do is dictate who is on the internet. Say there is a site that is saying bad things about the company, the company can block its users from assessing that information- AKA CENSORING.

I hope you are beginning to understand why censorship is a problem and should not be allowed.

We as United States citizens should be able to make our own decisions of where we access information and what information we see is beneficial to ourselves not have someone else dictate that for us. By taking away our right to choose we are essentially giving up our democracy and why this country is so grand.

If you want to further explore this topic check out this website from Standford.