Recently, Governments have been blocking and banning some websites on the internet. Furthermore, some countries such as Bahrain and Kuwait are spying on some social networks, and there is a strong punishment for citizens who write or talk about sensitive subjects on those social network websites. Actually, those governments or countries believe that controlling internet censorship is the best way to protect the country from political and religious struggles between its citizens who have different religion and vision in life. Internet censorship results in the restriction of certain sites of the internet hence restricting information flow in the country. Most government have resulted in banning of social sites such as twitter, Facebook and YouTube and news sites such as CNN and Sky news thereby limiting information flow in the country (Morozov, 89). Internet censorship is denial of the citizens of the rights of information and expression; therefore, governments should not partake into any activities that may lead to internet censorships.
Internet Censorship aims at blocking or limiting the flow of information form the outside world to a country. The government usually has its own reason on the need for internet censorship. Internet censorship is therefore a controversial topic with both the opposing and supporting sides having a good reason of to the reason to be against internet censorship. Various independent and republic countries practice this and include Australia, China, North Korea, Burma, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia among others.
For example, in Bahrain, my cousins who are Bahrainis cannot talk about their government and the political problems in their country in social websites such as Skype or WhatsApp because they are frightened of being captured by their government. Finally, controlling internet censorship by governments should no longer exist because it negatively effects people's freedom. According to the United Nation Convection, every citizen of a country has the right to express his or her self in any way as long he or she does not infringe on the rights of other (Brown, 112). Therefore, internet censorship by the government in one way or another limits the freedom of the citizens. Internet censorship therefore is a violation of the Bill of right tabled by the United Nations. Therefore, no member state of the United Nation should be practicing such activities as it violates the rights of the civilians.
Thirdly, the level of knowledge in societies will be decreased if governments control internet censorship. Actually, when the government blocks some websites, it will prevent its citizens from accessing important information that are contained in some of the websites. In addition, it will prevent them from knowing about the latest news in the world if those websites are news websites. Therefore, the level of knowledge about the world among people in society will be decreased. For instance, Sadam Hussain, the President of Iraq in 1980, prevented all media sources in his country in order to make his citizens not know about the world and to decrease their knowledge about the world. Actually, he was lying and telling them that Iraq is the best country in the world, and they believed him because their level of knowledge was low and did not have media sources to know whether he is right or not.
Furthermore, when the government controls internet censorship by blocking or banning some websites, it will stop people from watching or reading their interests in some websites, and that could prevent people from knowing or learning more about what they are interested. Therefore, the level of knowledge for those people will be declined. For example, my Iranian friend Nezar stopped learning about directing movies by the internet from You Tube because the Iranian government has blocked YouTube streaming in the country. Therefore, his passion to learn about directing movies and his knowledge about directing movies has decreased. Thus, governments should not control internet censorship because it decreases the knowledge in society.
Some governments think that controlling internet censorship has many benefits. Actually, those governments say that controlling internet protects the citizens from rumors that have been published in some websites, and if the citizens believe them, the society will be destroyed. In fact, controlling internet censorship is not a good solution to protect the society from rumors because it negatively affects the freedom, and there are many better ways than controlling internet censorship to prevent rumors to enter the society. Actually, the government make its citizens aware from rumors that are in some websites by making campaigns or TV programs that inform people about the official websites and websites that most its news are incredible. In addition, those governments can make announcements on the TV, radio and internet after every single rumor to make its citizens know whether the news is credible or.
Governments think that controlling internet censorship protects the society from websites that rob and lie to people by giving them special fictions in order to make them pay and take their money. Actually, blocking those websites will not make people not be robbed because robbers who make those websites will find out another way on the internet to rob people. Therefore, people will be robbed again in different ways on the internet. For example, in 2007, Kuwaiti government blocked a website that was robbing people by taking their money from people as donations to poor people. When the government knew that, they blocked his website, but after one month, he robbed some people again in another website by taking their money as donations to poor families.
According to me, the best way to protect people from being robbed is to inform them that there are many kinds of robberies on the internet. The government should also educate people on the awareness of internet spams and threats of hacking. Finally, there are many different methods that governments should do instead of controlling internet censorship to protect the society from the negatives of the internet. The government should come up with ways such as increasing awareness of the negativity of the internet and punishing offenders who distribute false and negative comments in the internet. The implementation of such policies will not only allow the citizens to exercise their rights but also give them conducive ground to interact with the outside world.
Internet Censorship is not a bad thing when practiced in the right. The internet also comes with a lot of negative effects and ideas to the fellow citizens. Pornography, abusive languages, negative publicity is distributed through the internet (Liang and Hong 23). Governments in most Asian and Arab countries have been noted to take measures and restrict the viewing of such materials through the internet censorship. In this case, it could be noted that internet censorship will result in the upholding of the moral standards of the society in general.
Internet censorship results in the limiting of the information relayed t the citizen of a country. Therefore, the government always has a need to protect its citizens from information that could prove to be negative to the citizens. Government internet censorship results in the prevention in the flow of rumors in a country thereby promoting peace. In the Arab countries, the government limits flow of information that could be posed as harmful. A good example could be seen in the reign of Saddam Hussein. The president of Iran limited the people from viewing the news from sites such as CNN and BBC so as to enable the government to have an upper hand. This enabled the government to control information flow in the country hence showing that the government was in control of the country yet it was overturned.
In conclusion, internet censorship results in the limiting of the rights of the individuals, hence information flow from the outside world and within the country. Internet censorship has both its advantages and disadvantages thereby creating a major controversy as ones opinion depend on his or her point of view. Internet censorship results in the; limiting of people freedoms, information flow, limiting their knowledge of current issues, denying the citizens the right to know the truth, riots and protests in some areas, as they demand for their rights. Therefore, the respective governments should take measures to reduce internet censorship in these named countries and only practice it when need arises.
Works Cited
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Barbour, Scott. Censorship: Opposing Viewpoints. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Print.
Borenstein, N. "KidCode: Naming Conventions for Protecting Children on the World Wide Web and Elsewhere on the Internet Without Censorship." (1995): Print.
Brown, Ian. "Internet censorship: be careful what you ask for." (2008): Print.
Bryfonski, Dedria. The Global Impact of Social Media. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Print.
Lankford, Ronald D. Censorship. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Print.
Liang, Bin, and Hong Lu. "Internet Development, Censorship, and Cyber Crimes in China."Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice (2010): n. pag. Print.
Morozov, Evgeny. The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 2011. Print.
