Internet Censorship In The United States

Regulation of the media has numerous goals, to protect the public interest, encourage competition and control content standards. The media falls under two models, that of public service and the market model. The UK, Italy and the USA are key of examples of how media regulation can be partially successful under different models, although ultimately they all fail to achieve the same goals. Traditionally, the media could be successfully regulated through the state controlled public service model the expansion of the media in particular the internet has meant that states are no longer able to impose the same scale of regulations. At the same time, a concentration of ownership so called monopolies has failed to be avoided and in turn they have gained

Protection against Internet censorship in the USA has meant that there is little government can do, without obstructing Freedom of expression. The non-governmental organization, Reporters Without Borders, which seeks to ensure freedom of information recognizes both the UK and USA in 2014 as being “Enemies of the internet” due to their censoring of news and information online. (Reporters Without Borders)In the USA further legislation is being sought against piracy and the protection of intellectual property.

On the other hand, Italy has attempted to pass legislation defining internet publications as press or television, meaning that they would be subject to the same regulations as the press. (Opensocietyfoundations.org, 2014) Current internet regulations are not deemed sufficient to protect the public from harmful material. Censorship of the internet has become ‘dependent on a framework of international convention’ such as the 2012, World Conference on International Telecommunications. (Beesley, 1996: p.33) It is no longer feasible for states to act alone in media regulation, as their success is

Creating limited ability to regulate the media, as they are not dependent on the state. Therefore it is more difficult to prioritise public interest over commercial interest. Commercialization has become more important in the mass media, as globalization has meant that it is no longer necessary to restrict the media to representing the public interest. Although, this is at the expense of minority interests as the media has become too focused on materialist aspects than informing the public. This is an evident trend in all three market models, as the political economy is portrayed to be important even in the public service broadcasting model, as the BBC and ITV are competing for audiences under