There are a lot of arguments happening regarding whether Internet is a “freedom-speech” place or there are some unspoken rules of ethics or even if some of the restrictions should occur. Our book states “…given their tremendous size and importance as platforms for free speech, companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Twitter shouldn’t try to be guardians of what Waldron calls a “well-ordered society” and this case leans more toward why there should be no restrictions on what is being said or spoken on the Internet” (McElwee 548). I, personally, think that it should be limited and the content people post or talk about has to be censored.
I have some arguments to claim why it should be limited. Let’s think about content on the internet. You can post whatever you want and it can only be removed from a certain platform if you violate their rules, other than that you can post content that is unethical and unsavory. Is that freedom of speech? Absolutely. But it does hurt other people and does not make our society better. Moreover, it can lead to a chaos in a society and this is why I believe that the content people post should be limited and/or censored. If people promote or talk positively on topics like Nazism, nationalism, xenophobia, racism, discrimination, any type of abuse, animal harm, and so on then the society can turn into a machine that would believe in that and it may not even be able to stopped. Then, the consequences would be irreversible. No matter how much we believe in democracy we still are controlled and we have to be controlled because that is the only way to lead a large mass of people as a country. Making sure that the content I stated earlier or any relevant to it is not promoted on the internet will help to prevent the events that may cause harm to people or environment.
The other example is that often people like to verbally abuse other people, a lot of times celebrities on the internet. They do it because they know nothing is going to happen to them. They sit somewhere, fully protected, hiding behind an internet nickname and typing the negative, offensive words that they would never say to a person’s face. Most of them wouldn’t. I understand argumentative critics and it should definitely be out there but nonsense offense should be censored in my opinion as well. Luckily, there is an option on Instagram now that allow you to set the settings in a way that if there is a certain word or a phrase in a comment you get on your page then it automatically gets deleted. People try to offend celebrities because that is the only way they can reach them. They believe that there is a chance that this celebrity person would read their message or a comment. And this is the only way they would ever be able to get to them because most likely those people would never be able to interact with the celebrities. Therefore, they spread negativity.
But let’s see it from the other side. Will we have the freedom of speech on the internet with all those limitations? Because right now internet is mostly uncontrollable in the United States and there is a great example in our book. It gives Reddit as an example, the website that surely has no limits with “threads like /r/nazi, /r/killawoman, /r/misogyny, /r/killingwomen” existing (McElwee 549). The author, McElwee, says “my argument is not that these should be taken down because they are offensive, but rather because they amount to the degradation of a class that has been historically oppressed” and I think he is being very mild (549). So, we do have the freedom of speech now but those threads existing on a website are not normal and it should not be normal to anyone. And it shouldn’t be doubtable because no one doubts that 2+2=4, right? I think that even with the limitation the freedom of speech would exist. If, for instance, Rihanna wears a dress that everyone likes but some person doesn’t like because of the personal preference and he would say it out loud, nobody will say that he promotes the hate. He would just state his opinion based on his personal preference. That is definitely the freedom of speech when you can talk about whether you like something or not or whether you agree with something and disagree and why.
The crazy situation happened in Russia couple years ago when the man “was sentenced to two years in prison’, New York Post states, after sharing a certain picture online (“Russians Are Getting Years in Jail for Their Social Media ‘Likes’” ). It was believed he was promoting extremism that is illegal. I agree that extremism should not be promoted in any form but to look at his situation, it is not that obvious that he promotes extremism and the verdict of the jury may be hard to understand to a lot of people. And the amount of people who get arrested and sentenced for their online activities grow each year. Does it limit their right to freedom of speech or are they being law-breakers? My opinion is that each situation is individual and specific but I believe that every person who simply disagrees has to be sued. The criticism should exist because if it wouldn’t exist then how the life would be moving forward and progress?
We all use Internet every day and it is possible to search for everything nowadays, it is unlimited. There is a lot of hatred being promoted as well as drugs, suicides, depression. The kids see that and then a lot of mental illnesses occur. Even when adults see that, they can also get traumatized. I think that people should be familiar with those terms but there should be no way for them to be promoted, that means the Internet should have some restrictions or some censored content that should not be posted. Another side of Internet that exists is called DarkWeb and on that platform you are able to get illegal products and services but I do not think DarkWeb can be censored as of now. However, if Internet would have restrictions on abusive content that can be posted and regulated then it may be possible to get to DarkWeb as the next step. The people who use Internet have to realize that the less hatred is being promoted the better place our world will become.
