Censorship and the Online Community
Censorship and the Online Community
Censorship is a word that breeds strong emotions in many people. Whether it is associated with speech, fashion, or the access to information. Censorship has been around since before the time of the bible. It has caused wars and revolutions. Censorship has always been a staple of Dictatorship and Totalitarian governments. These types of governments thrive off censorship because it gives them power to control, restrain, and limit what people hear, read, see, and speak. Since the beginning of mass media mediums such as newspapers, radio, and television some form of censorship has been attempted. Often only subtle forms of censorship are accepted in most nations but in the totalitarian governments absolute censorship is the way of life. Absolute, Prior, or Formal censorship requires getting approval from the government or a high leader before any content is broadcast or published. In the early 90’s a new medium, the Internet was opened to the public and its’ popularity grew in enormous amounts.
The growth rate of the online community continues to grow and the Internet has become almost an inevitable part of our daily lives. And like all its predecessors attempts have been made to censor it. This is a political issue that has yet to be concluded on. There are many who feel the Internet should face strict censorship like supporter Senator Jim Exon, coauthor of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Senator Exon would like to make it a criminal offense to make available anything that is indecent using the protection of children as his basis: “The CDA makes it illegal to transmit or make available indecent material to children…The Decency Act stands for the premise that it is wrong to provide pornography to children on computers just as it is wrong to do it on the street corner or anywhere else” In opposition there are those who feel censorship of the internet would step on their freedom of speech and freedom of expression rights. Many organizations have formed as a result of this social and political issue such as the Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition (CIEC), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) all of which feel the censorship of the Internet is unconstitutional. Both sides have equally good arguments as to why the...