Should Government Monitor Internet Content

" It’s safe to say that the government has at least some responsibility to monitor internet content. Some extreme liberals may say the government should have zero duties or powers to monitor internet content, however, we must keep in mind that an unregulated internet could be a huge threat to America as a nation and to individual citizens. Though these possible threats should not be used as a lever to give the government full control over internet content. The must be a limit. The question is, how do we find that limit? To find it, we must first ask how far the Constitution will even allow the government to go. We can first note that nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government given the power to monitor internet content or a citizen’s personal internet history. One could argue that the Fourth Amendment denies all levels of government the right to monitor internet content. This can be countered by the decision of the Smith v. Maryland case (1976). In this case, Patricia McDonough had been robbed and seemingly threatened by Michael Lee Smith. The police used dial tracking to confirm that Smith was the right suspect, but Smith argued that the police had done something unconstitutional by tracking his telephone dials. The court concluded saying that

The biggest issue with the government monitoring internet content in recent news is the repeal of Net Neutrality. Many have argued that repealing net neutrality could be in violation of the First or Fourth Amendments, however, net neutrality has only begun to exist in recent years. It’s hard to argue the repeal to be unconstitutional when the act itself was only so recently enacted. The repeal of net neutrality would allow to government to censor some of the internet content that has been available to us. This issue has left many citizens of the U.S.