Should the Policy of Internet Censorship Be Adopted in the Society?

Nowadays, Internet Surfing might have been viewed as a part of our daily life, since the Internet has provided a virtual reality with enormous freedom. Actually, possessing the features of speediness, immediateness, freeness and borderlessness, the Internet was a free domain for every user to act whatever they want. In this cyberspace, someone suggests that the policy of Internet censorship is needed to prevent users from misusing the Internet. However, some people argue that the Internet censorship should not be adopted, as the freedom of speech is the basic human right. For this controversial issue, I am going to discuss both advantages and disadvantages of Internet censorship in the following paragraph.

Internet censorship plays an indispensable role in preventing users from misusing the Internet. Recently, some kinds of crime including Internet bullying, and intimidating have been committed through the Internet; some victims having an eternal scar were teenagers. According to Kokswijk (2007, p. 119), emphasis has been placed on “the Internet can, should and will be subject to social order”, and the question is how do we set those regulations. For instance, some countries like Russia and India have used the selective Internet censorship for regulating the users’ speech on the Internet; one of the reasons is to maintain the social norms and morals. Internet censorship could effectively prohibit someone from bullying or intimidating another.

Internet censorship is sometimes necessary to protect society, because it could keep the stability of the society and a country. Spreading rumours might result in social upheaval, and divulging military secrets might collapse the national defence system; neither of them is acceptable in a harmonious society, and the above messages should be censored in order to maintain a stable circumstance. Research by Benjamin, Mahmoud, and Tobias (2012) supports the rumours could be spread fast and easily in social network, as a rumour started at a random node in Twitter, it reaches 45 million of the total 51 million members within only a few rounds of communication. Such a prompt way to spread rumours could easily make a mess in the society; censorship is thus the most effective approach to ban the rumourmongers from posting the messages.

Internet content censoring is the best method to protect children; it could keep unwanted materials away from children. In this Internet-prevailing age, various information and materials can be effortlessly shared and downloaded including child pornography and pornography advertisement. Some Internet censorship advocates argue that the children would be susceptible to pornography resources without it.