Essay On Censorship In America

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Around the world, every country is unique in its own way, although they are diverse, there is one thing that every country undeniably has that makes the citizens all similar- censorship. The main principles of the First Amendment are freedom of speech, religion, and press. The First Amendment also allows citizens to protest peacefully and petition. Many immigrants come to the United States to live the “American Dream”. However, this idea overshadows how similar our countries really are. Censorship occurs everywhere, even in the “Land of the Free”. Things are swept under the rug and kept from people for the “greater good”, but should not the greater good be for people to know what is going on in the world they live in? People constantly post things just to have them removed; social media is a tremendous platform to inform and educate people on things that the news refuses to cover or hides. Concealing information and censoring the media defeats the purpose of the First Amendment and goes against the foundation of our country. Censorship has been an ongoing issue in the United States for what seems like centuries now. The first account of censorship was in 1798 when President John Adams did not agree with what a critic had to say about him. The Thomas Jefferson …show more content…

When a journalist wants to report an article, interview, survey, etc. they cannot report what people need and/or want to know, they can only report what the government wants the people to know (“Censorship Effects on Society”). They do not have the freedom to express what they really want to which deprives them of their rights. The United States and many other countries see the internet as a threat and a means of control which is why information of the World Wide Web is censored (Bennett). It is believed that the government censors as a way to have control not to protect citizens; by knowing more, they have the upper