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Reflection 13

Page history last edited by Andrei 8 years, 7 months ago

IS FREE SPEECH FREE EVERYWHERE?

AUTHOR: Erin Mauger

PUBLISHED Thursday, April 18th, 2013

First Impression: Freedom of speech and its scope and limitations.

Quote from the article that struck you the most: “large number of politically relevant websites, often imposing complete blocks on certain social-media platforms.”

5 things I’ve learned from the article:

  1. Government and other companies who are in authority can take a huge step in controlling or blocking your rights in the use of internet.
  2. The use of internet as an environment for expressing freedom of speech and gaining knowledge is a right of every individual.
  3. here are different forms of censorship exhibit by some government which is categorized in to three groups which are the “blockers”, “non-blockers” and “nascent-blockers”
  4. Obscenity, particularly when it comes to child pornography, is a big moral issue in the use of internet.
  5. Every right should be equally enforced by the government may it be online of offline.

 

5 integrative questions:

  1. Are there such thing as ethical censorship?
  2. How can the government impose the power of exercising relevant purpose through an act of censorship without depriving people’s basic rights?
  3. What are the positive and negative implications of censorship?
  4. How can individual users know when it is or when it is not right to express their freedom of speech in a sensitive environments such as the internet?
  5. How can the government precisely empower transparency among the state?

 

                The article primarily talks about the issue of exercising the freedom of speech in the internet and what are the ethical implications that we can derived from it. The line in question is that who does actually have the power to control the use of the internet? Primarily bigger companies who are runs over these internet services and the government that are in control are the main contributors in taking such actions against normal individual users. It is very alarming to know that some things can be taken away from you by others who are in authority and can force you to be silent especially when it comes to the matter of expressing your opinions through speech. The ethical concern is that these bigger entities are taking advantage of their power by blocking internet users from being free in the online environment. Such actions is because of the hidden agenda that these entities wanted to impose. In our country, I can relate this issue in comparison with the marketers who are responsible on making distractive and very catchy advertisements to divert people’s attention and therefore be forced to forget the important factors that are in line with it. What I’m trying to say is that, blocking the rights of the users and diverting people’s attention by other stuff share a common purpose and that is to take a dominant side on taking control over the circulation of information and be able to implement their agendas may it be wrong and personal without causing any outrage amongst the people.

 

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