Censorship is the suppression of words, images, or ideas that may be deemed “offensive.” While this is the official definition of censorship, for many, the definition does little to articulate complexity and controversial nature of the word; Such as what role it will play as new technologies and forms of communications are developed. The past 20 years have seen significant advancements in technologies that have not only changed the individual's way of life but has also greatly impacted society's attitude toward censorship.
Censorship has been around as long as there has been language. That being said, the way in which society views and approaches the topic has also changed. In this quote by Nick Cohen from his book You Can’t Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom he describes the relationship between societies and censorship. “The faster you strip cultures down, the more you find contrariness and disputation, rather than a solid
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In some circumstances, the supreme court has held that certain types of speech are only of “low” first amendment value, such as: defamation, true threats, “fighting words,” obscenity, child pornoaphy, commercial advertising. Outside of “low” value speech, most other content-based restrictions on speech are presumptively unconstitutional. Even entertainment, vulgarity, “hate speech,” bigoted speech, blasphemy, and violent video games are protected by the first amendment. The second situations where the government can restrict speech under a less demanding standard when the speaker is in a special relationship to the government (ex. teachers). The third circumstance would be when it does so without regard to the content of the message of the speech. Content-neutral restrictions such as restriction on noise, blocking traffic, and large signs are generally constitutional as long as they are