The Importance Of Internet Censorship

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Internet censorship by the government “Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of 'The Giver': the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all” (Lowry Lois). Internet censorship is the suppression or control of what can be accessed on the Internet. When governments apply censorship, they subjectively choose to censor whatever content they see as inappropriate for children and adults to have access to.We are living in a world where we have access on the internet to anything the human brain could think of, and trying to filter and restrict access to some of the content available on the web is like…show more content…
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America pledges the right to self-expression and freedom of speech.When the government conducts censorship on materials online, they are taking away a person’s right to have an opinion and form a conclusion about a certain issue. It impairs the atmosphere of freedom to voice ideas online. The Internet was initially a platform for people to feel free to express their thoughts around the world. Censorship bans debates that could lead to better understanding of a certain social, psychological, artistic, or literary matter, and inhibits critical thinking (Driscoll and DiLascio, 2015, p.2). Freedom of expression comes with freedom of choice. If one person does not like art, he or she doesn’t have to visit galleries and museums. If one person does not like a certain show on television, he or she can switch the channel. So, if someone does not like certain content they see online, or deem it as offensive or unethical or anything negative, they can simply look at something else on the internet. It’s that simple. One cannot please all tastes at the same time. What one person sees as right could be seen as wrong by someone else. As human beings, we are entitled to have a personal and unique opinion about everything. The question remains, why should the government go on censoring things online trying to mold society into what it considers right? This situation is commonly found in dictatorship governments where leaders erase all opposing information to their ideology and beliefs. They also threaten their people to abide and adapt to their rules or face punishment. They give them minimum information while they seek to know everything about them. Thus, not only do they take away the right of free speech, but also the right to curiosity. “Now should the right of curiosity not be granted to the
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