The internet is an open platform which allows its users to share their ideas and content on the platform. Due to its openness and independence, the amount of content shared on the internet is substantial which also include explicit content that is not beneficial for the society (Curran, Fenton & Freedman, 2016). It raises the significance of internet censorship to govern data sharing on the internet in order to ensure that it did not adversely affect the interest of people, corporations and society. Internet censorship is referred to the control or suppression which is generally exercised by the government in order to limit what can be accessed, viewed or published on the internet (McPherson, Houmansadr & Shmatikov, 2016). This is a highly controversial topic since many people argue that the censorship infringes their right to access the internet freely. In previous five years, the role and impact of internet censorship have changed significantly, and new rules are introduced by governments across the globe in order to limit the access of people to the online content. This report will evaluate the changes in internet censorship policies across the globe in the past five years. This report will analyse how censorship can have both positive and negative impact on the society.
In the past few years, countries which have implanted strict internet censorship policies have increased significantly. Many global incidents in the past five years have shown how vulnerable users’ data is on the online platform which raises the importance of internet censorship. Moreover, the number of children who have access to the internet has increased along with explicit content online. It has become easier for users to access explicit content on the internet which raises the concern of parents since access to the internet is important for their education; however, it gives them access to explicit content online (Craun, Bourke & Coulson, 2015). Many times, websites purposely show advertisement or spam message which lead the user to a website which has explicit content. On the other hand, many times authorities use internet censorship to limit or prohibit the access of the nation to the information for their ill intentions. For instance, China is a good example. The Republic of China has implemented one of the most extensive internet censorship in the work which is governed by a wide range of laws and administrative regulations. There are over sixty internet restrictions which have been introduced by the government of China which are governed and managed by state-owned ISPs, companies and other organisations (Yang, 2016). Therefore, the motivations for implementing internet censorship policies range from well intentional desires in order to ensure that the children are protected from unsuitable content online to authoritarian attempts to controlling the ability of the citizens to access the information.
Along with China, many other nations have started to implement internet censorship policies on their citizens in the last five years. A good example is India; in 2015, the government of India blocked 32 websites which were hosting content by terrorist groups (Akolawala, 2015). Many users criticised this decision which breaches the principles of democracy and free speech, however, many countries started implementing policies of internet censorship in order to band terrorist content. For instance, YouTube and Twitter are working hard to remove jihadi materials and videos posted by members of ISIS beheading people (Arthur, 2014). The introduction of internet censoring policies is considered a war against terrorism. According to a recent study by Freedom on the Net highlighted that around two-third or 67 percent of internet users live in countries in which criticism of the government, ruling family or military is subject to censorship.
Around 35 percent of the global internet population did not have free access to the internet, and 29 percent have partly free access to the internet (Gray, 2016). In 2017, the Trump Administration passed a bill which releases telecommunication corporations such as AT&T and Verizon from having to protect the data of their customers. This bill resulted in increasing the risk of jeopardy of users’ data, and it opens them for surveillance (Jacobson, 2017). Furthermore, the policies of net neutrality can result in increasing challenges for users because it enables organisations and the government to limit the access of users to specific content which they have for which resulted in terminating the openness of the internet (Curran, Fenton & Freedman, 2016). Since the number of internet censorship policies has increased substantially in the past five years, the controversy surrounding the topic has increased as well. There are both positive and negative implications of implementing internet censorship policies which affect the society.
Following are various benefits of implementing internet censorship policies on society.
The key advantage of imposing internet censorship is that it assists in limiting criminal activities on the internet. Since the internet is an open and global platform, it is used by criminals, organisations and others to conduct illegal activities. For instance, the internet is used for recruiting members for terrorist groups, hacking bank accounts of individuals, online scams, identify theft and phishing. These are only some of the illegal activities which are conducted on the online platform by parties, and a large number of people have fallen victim of these criminal activities (Al-Saqaf, 2016). By implementing internet censorship policies, the government can prevent these illegal activities by banning malicious content from the web and closing any suspicious activities.
Due to unsupervised access to the internet, children become prey of predators that use online platforms to engage with children in order to collect child pornography and other malicious acts. The dark web has provided a place for people to buy and share child pornography. These places are also used by criminals for sex trafficking of children which has become a significant issue which is difficult for the government to prevent (Greer, 2016). Implementation of internet censorship policies resulted in avoiding sex trafficking through online networks, and it also puts a ban on child pornography. By imposing internet censoring, the violators will be punished for their actions, and the number of children who become victim in these crimes will be reduced. Recently, the government of India has imposed a ban on porn sites in order to reduce the number of people who watch porn online. India is 3rd most porn watching country, and the number of porn watchers in the country is continuously growing. Thus, the government used internet censorship in order to put a stop to this growing number of porn viewers.
The government can impose a ban on online activities which are suspicious or fraudulent in order to strengthen online security. The number of cyber-attacks has increased substantially in the past few years along with other online crimes such as cyber bullying, identity theft, data breach and others. A good example is leak of more than 500 explicit images of celebrities on the internet which was leaked from their iCloud accounts. By implementing internet censorship policies, the government can put a ban on any suspicious activity which is used by cyber-criminal to collect private data of users (McPherson, Houmansadr & Shmatikov, 2016). It will also limit the access of cyber criminals on the internet which will limit different ways which they used to violate private information of users.
Internet censorship laws which are implemented by the government to stop hacking and violation of privacy can result in preserving national security from cyber criminals. Countries are facing challenges of cyber warfare in which terrorists use online mediums to collect national secrets which could be used by them to violate the security of the country (Bradshaw & DeNardis, 2018). After imposing strict censorship, it will become impossible for bad elements such as terrorist and others to pose a threat to the security of a country.
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes across the globe. The number of cases in the United States of identity theft was increased substantially in 2016 in which more than 15.4 million users reported the theft of their identity (Sullivan, 2017). Due to ease of access on the internet, the number of cases involving identity theft is growing continuously. Restricting online content will allow the government to avoid the theft of information of parties which is easily shared on the online mediums. It will assist in reducing the negative impact of identity theft on the society.
The number of fake news has increased dramatically in 2017 as fake news websites started to use social media sites and other platforms to share them to a wider audience. The number of websites which promote false reports generating more money through clicks has increased; therefore, more people believe that these news stories are real. Due to popularity of social media sites and instant messaging application, it has become easier for people to share fake news, thus, it spread quickly (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). By putting censorship on the internet, the number of fake news websites will be prohibited by the government to ensure that they did not post false information to get more viewers that will remove the issue of fake news.
Along with positive influence, there are various negative impacts of internet censorship on the society which resulted in creating new challenges for people.
As the government bans the free internet, it also bans the right of people to freely express their views online. It is a fundamental right of people that they have the freedom of expression based on which they have the right to give their opinions online freely. The opponents of the internet censorship argue that putting a ban on the free internet by making any law to govern the freedom of the press, speed and expression is considered as a violation of basic human rights (Lipschultz, 2018). Under the Constitution of the United States, the First Amendment puts a prohibition of making any laws which resulted in infringing the freedom of speech and press, among others. This internet censorship limits the right of individuals to freely express their opinions on an open platform which is a violation of their basic right.
If a ban is imposed on the type of content which press and other online mediums can publish, then it will result in depriving people of learning about the truth. The government or other authorities can use internet censorship to hide the truth and ensure that it did not get out in public. In today’s digital era, movements such as “Metoo” have shown the power of the free internet. Women and other individuals are empowered to share their story online and punish those people who harassment or exploit people (Yang, 2018). It shows the positive impact of the free internet which benefits a large number of people, and it can be used by individuals for a much-needed ‘clean-up’ of society. On the other hand, putting a censorship will limit the freedom of expression of people due to which the government and other authorities will control what can and cannot share on the internet which resulted in depriving people from the truth which negatively impact on the society, especially for minorities, women or individuals who did not have the power to reach a wider audience or make sure that their voices are heard (Mina, 2014). It is impossible to categorised information on each website as ‘harmful’ or ‘safe’ which means that websites which have important and helpful information will be banned as well, thus, it resulted in promoting ignorance about significant events and development across the globe which is bad for the society.
There are people all around the world who take unfair advantage of their powers to exploit the rights of others. For instance, government officials who are in the control of internet censorship policies can use them for benefiting their government or candidate by prohibiting others to share negative information about them (Du, 2016). It raises the issue of who watches the watcher because if it is not directly supervised, then it leads to unethical outcomes.
Implementation of internet censorship is challenging because security agencies and governments did not have sufficient funding to implement internet censorship policies. In 2015, shutting down the internet cost over $2.4 billion to countries. In this decision, Egypt suffered a cost of $90 million for cutting internet connectivity (West, 2016). Thus, it shows that imposing of internet censorship is an expensive process which will come at the expense of taxpayers. It will also adversely influence the economy at a global stage because the government defines what is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ which will influence economy at local level. Small business owners who use e-commerce platform will be at a disadvantageous position than compared to industry competitors which will negatively reflect on the economy of the country.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the imposition of internet censorship policies will have both positive and negative impact on the society. Putting internet censorship policies will benefit the society by reducing the number of cyber-attacks and leaking of private information of people. These policies can avoid identity theft of individuals, and they can strengthen online security policies. It can improve national security and protect children from sex trafficking and pornography. However, it violates the right of individuals to express their views on the internet freely. The internet is an open platform which is used by people to collect information and developments across the globe. But, putting internet censorship will limit the access of individuals to this information. These policies can also be used by authorities and officials to unfairly take advantage of their power for personal gain which is negative for their society. It is also an expensive process which can negatively impact the economy of the country. Thus, until there are effective policies for ensuring that internet censorship did not negatively affect society, imposing a ban on the free internet is not a good option for society. The governments should choose alternative ways to protect children and national security.
References
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Greer, J. (2016). Children and internet pornography: a moral panic, a salvation for censors and Trojan horse for government colonisation of the digital frontier (pp. 137-148). Bristol: Policy Press.
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