Is Censorship Good Or Bad For Society

Is censorship good or bad for society? We first need to know what censorship is, Google defines it as the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are offensive. The keyword in that definition is “offensive”, each person has their own idea of what is offensive and what isn’t. So the notion that we are better off with censorship is wrong because each of us have our own interpretation. Censorship is negatively impacting today's society because it violates free speech, people have less say about it, and it doesn't show the full picture.

One of the biggest and most important reasons censorship is bad is because of the fact that it violates free speech. Censorship can take away the rights that all of us have been granted. One of the most important legislatures done by The Founding Fathers was the 1st amendment, in The Bill of Rights, which says that “no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech”.What this basically means that there wouldn’t be “any” laws that confine your rights. When you allow censorship to occur you basically through all that away because it opens the door for people to decide for you, what you’re allowed or not allowed to hear and say. Censorship is harmful to our modern day society because it goes against many of the beliefs and ideas of freedom.

When the government decides what is right and wrong for people, those people lose their ability to make those judgments. Censored media and content can be easily seen in China, one of the leading countries in population, economy, etc. According to Eleanor Albert “ The Chinese government deploys myriad ways of censoring the internet.”(COFR, 2017) this can be from banning certain media to just flat out imprisoning journalist. These types of action are violations of human rights, all in the name of