ipl-logo

Social Media And Censorship In The United States

1350 Words6 Pages

We live in a digital world where we can consume information from multiple sources including the internet, television, and social media. People can post all their opinions in a country that allows freedom of speech such as the United States who allows freedom of speech and press because of an established constitution was written by the founders of the United States of America. There are exceptions to allowing people to post their opinions in countries with stricter governmental censorship. Today in the United States the only established institute in America for the United Constitution states, quotes from the original constitution, “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press” (Constitution). These written …show more content…

One country that has very strict censorship ideas is China. On a bar graph from “Dreamgrow” which is a social media informed website shows that Facebook has about 1.8 billion users per month with no other social media network in the world close to that statistic. Facebook is a social media network that allows people to connect all over the world with a click of a button, and an article of Facebook’s mission statement states that “Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” Doesn’t China’s censorship go against this mission? In 2009 Facebook had to go against this mission in order to expand into China’s 1.4 billion population, and have a third party monitoring Facebook’s feed in China’s geography. China’s strict censorship on social media has hurt Facebook and China’s people, because it is making it harder for Facebook to achieve its mission to help connect everyone and make it difficult for people in China to communicate and connect with the rest of the world if China’s government censors and monitors everything that people in China post to Facebook. Governments that abuse their social media censorship harm not only …show more content…

Mike Pence, the Indiana Governor and now vice-president elect posted on his Facebook about how he was disappointed in the United States Supreme Court of Marriage Act, and he received many comments under this post. Pence and his office censored some of these comments from being read because of their negativity towards his figure. Paul Taylor a well-respected and senior advisor to the Center for Digital Government wrote an article in the “Governing” and had problems finding the exact count of the number of comments because, “The exact number of comments is unclear because staff in the governor’s office deleted some comments, initially defending the action on the basis of the office’s policy prohibiting obscenity, vulgarity and personal attacks” There are nearly 2000 posts about politics and only around 200 get to their recipients, says a post on Facebook from an account called “People Over Politics”. There are many cases that Facebook censors’ political comments and posts. The most common notice that Facebook gives a user that their post was censored looks something like this screenshot of a post that was deleted. Facebook isn’t the only people that are censoring the public. Many countries are also censoring the Facebook from the public. An article written about The Vietnamese government censoring the use of Facebook this May

Show More
Related
737 Words | 3 Pages

Do Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook cover up free speech? People that run media sites, such as Instagram and Facebook have bias and shut down pages if they “Violate their Community Guidelines”. I follow a lot of pages that have been shut down because they say opinions that apparently violent their terms when all they did was say their opinion and express their right to free speech. This goes along with Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, when the government is censoring people and not letting them read books.

Read More
1204 Words | 5 Pages

However, the government does not have the responsibility to police what other citizens should or should not listen to as “the right to hear the speech of others is pro­tected by the First Amendment.” (Samples), deeming that act of censorship as unconstitutional. The responsibility to filter through one's media for offensive content falls on the user and not a federal authority which does not know what every citizen deems controversial or not. Therefore, “speech by and for social media users may be presumed to be free of government regulation” (Samples) and would only be counterintuitive for the government to perform as what is offensive is a relative subject. Clearly, media censorship for the purpose of protecting citizens is not a government responsibility as the government being the reviser of media can lead to the mass diffusion of misinformation, as well as lead to the systematic oppression of undesirable citizens.

Read More
1344 Words | 6 Pages

Today, this control is more subtle and pervasive than in 1984. Methods used to manipulate information flow vary, but the results are often similar: people are kept ignorant and under surveillance.. In 1984, Censorship was essential in China because the citizens only knew one way of living and behaving. In the 21st century, all Swedes have the opportunity to access an endless number of different news reports and share their opinions and experiences with millions of others all over the world. However, the vast majority of young adults only consult their first ten Google search results, and Google as well as the increasingly popular social media sites aim to purely feed their users articles and adverts that concern their previous recreational as well as political interest.

Read More
1207 Words | 5 Pages

To illustrate this idea and relate it to a recent event, popular “meme” page admins on a prominent social media website, Facebook, have been boycotting the site due to the sites active use of censorship, according to an article written by Sage Lazzaro from The Observer. The admins and

Read More
459 Words | 2 Pages

The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. People have been arguing with the government for the same rights for

Read More
530 Words | 3 Pages

Government is called to dictate internet content when one incites people to violence with his speech, however, it needs to be a true threat which includes immediacy and an actual intent. For instance, during the Vietnam War, a man expressed that “if he got drafted, his first bullet would be for President Johnson.” The Court detected no threat nor any real intent in the context, therefore, the government had no need to monitor what was being said. If the speech did not pose any likely threats but was regulated by the government, one’s freedom of

Read More
1203 Words | 5 Pages

Recently, the internet in The People’s Republic of China has been taken over by the Communist Party. This party has eliminated all websites in China that could denounce the government or release sensitive information. Cheng Hua explains, “any internet media company operating within China's borders has to face control and censorship from national

Read More
643 Words | 3 Pages

In many countries around the world, censorship is being used to keep people from knowing the truth of their rights. The government maintains power and wealth that way, but the should know their rights and freedoms. Censorship should be banned in all countries online, in articles, newspapers, and magazines because some countries are not permitting their own people to learn and discuss public affairs, there is no substitute for freedom of speech and press, and freedom of speech and press permits an informed access to information and opinions. In many countries around the world, they do not permit their own people to learn and discuss public affairs because countries maintain power and wealth by force.

Read More
1382 Words | 6 Pages

To be real every person has an opinion on every matter they encounter and issue they deal with, we like a president more than another, we like a system better than another, we are more comfortable with expressing through social media as it is mainly made for the purpose of being heard and putting yourself out there but carefully and be smart about it since hackers infest this world and there are man reoccurring cases of identity theft and privacy trespassing. That being said with all human interests there are certain forms of art or cults that are very controversial and not suitable for all ages or people and so social media is censored to a certain extent. Does censorship protect us or violate the human right of freedom of speech? To answer that we need to understand what is censored and why is

Read More
1686 Words | 7 Pages

Censorship can be described as the act of cutting out certain material that can be considered obscene or inconvenient for the community. This material can be found in social media such as in the TV, radio, or the internet. Censorship can be challenged because of the first amendment: freedom of speech. Free expression is the right of expressing opinions and ideas without any fear of being restrained or censored. However, freedom of speech does not include the right to incite actions that would harm others or the distribution of obscene material (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, 2000).

Read More
1087 Words | 5 Pages

Media and social media have a detrimental impact on society and the lives of individuals. By wrongly creating or failing to represent content, the media are able to develop and change a person's attitudes towards certain issues. It is evident, from our world history, that propaganda and censorship has served as a powerful means of altering the attitudes of a population. In World War I, it was used to implore soldiers to fight, and encouraged women to assist in the war efforts, despite the atrocities that continued to surface as the war stretched on. Furthermore, the media's use of propaganda today has similarly persuaded the views of individuals towards Islam and Muslim's alike.

Read More
507 Words | 3 Pages

" Ever since the start of social media in 1997, there has been one question that remains a constant: ""Who should be able to monitor internet content and how much should they be able to see?" " People to this day argue over who should see what and just how much should be seen, and that is why I am even here writing this essay. This important discussion has yet to reach an end, and to have a voice, you need to speak out in the first place. So, saying that, the government should not be able to monitor someone's social media and internet content unless there is an investigation and they have good reason to be monitoring it. As for the state, I believe that it should follow the same way the government should: no monitoring unless there is a

Read More
613 Words | 3 Pages

Andrew Perler Robert Tindall LA202 March 24th 2015 Internet Censorship The Internet has grown rapidly over the past 10 years, and has become a major resource for global communication and accessible information. However, recently there has been ever-growing worries about the information that is currently available on the Internet, and how it can possibly be used to damage society. Because of this, a popular debate has arisen that focuses on wether or not a government has the right to censor a website or information source that they believe is not suitable for the public to view, or can pose a threat to society.

Read More
1292 Words | 6 Pages

Furthermore, in many developing countries or in those with oppressive regimes, government actions are more important than the Internet in defining how information is produced and consumed, and by whom. There are so many counties that use strict censorship in their media. “Present-day examples include Russia as a territorially shrunken successor state to the former USSR, China and North Korea” (Höchli, 2010). Censorship in North Korea is known to be the most intense among the world. With a government such as theirs, they are able to take strict control over communications.

Read More
721 Words | 3 Pages

In conclusion, political impact on social media is huge and obvious. Social media platforms is substituting the traditional formal news media which has restrictions on the news and information they share especially in closed societies. Governments of closed societies are facing a problem because the government cannot control the news and the information shared on the internet which diminish the government authority to control their citizens. Lack of control on internet has made social media a platform for activists in politics and human right

Read More

More about Social Media And Censorship In The United States

Related Topics

Open Document