Ethical And Social Perspectives Of Internet Censorship

Introduction

Nowadays, with the rapid development of the internet and technology, there is a lot of illegitimate information on the Internet. such as pornography, violence, infringement of personal privacy, national security. which will undoubtedly have a negative impact on people, especially for children’s physical and mental health. Although there are laws that regulate illegal information and illegal activities, these laws are not perfect enough to regulate all illegal or unethical activities. Therefore, we need internet censorship to filter that information. Internet filtering is on the rise in today’s world. It is being carried out in most Western industrialized countries as well as in developing countries and non-democratic regimes. Internet filtering software is used as a tool to prevent Internet users from accessing or viewing materials that are considered unsafe or inappropriate. More and more countries and regions in the world realize that online censorship is not enough to ensure network security only by market supervision or self-discipline of netizens. It is worthwhile to ensure national security, social security, social stability, protect the interests of most netizens, and promote network health by sacrificing the network freedom of a few netizens. In fact, many countries in the world do have online censorship of different degrees or in different ways. After the Snowden incident, even the United States, which claims to be internet-free can no longer conceal the facts of network monitoring in other countries and on the American people. Geographically, regardless of the United States, Australia, Britain, France, and other European countries or developing countries, they all have different levels of online censorship. It can be seen that online censorship has developed into a global behavior with considerable universality. National governments develop their internet and information policy based on the political system, economic development level, and cultural beliefs. Every country can have different policies. In my opinion, internet censorship is necessary for people both from ethical and social perspectives.

Discussion

Internet censorship is conducive for young people’s physical and mental health. In July, the UK government is going to introduce porn age checks to protect children from cultural and criminal challenges. The Internet is full of bad information about pornography, violence, rumors, cults, racial discrimination, terrorism, and other illegal crimes. Internet censorship can filter inappropriate information online to protect children from those disturbing websites. The Internet has become a growing unregulated area and causing many problems. Curiosity killed the cat. Young people are always curious about pornography, they are always looking for it. More and more young people are looking for other harmful materials online. There is an age limit for young people to access adult material in real life. But on the internet this is a grey area, people can access adult materials mostly freely. Young people who addict to adult pornography may be changing their sustained human relationships and be having bad affects to their world view. Addiction is an extension of reward-based learning that can physically alter the brain and affect later behavior. Children and teens are capable of developing compulsive sexual behaviors, which can lead to sexual addiction. Sexual addiction for children and youth will take a long time to recover. It will also impact young people’s personal life like poor academic performance, insufficient energy or unable to focus. Most of the pornographic videos also contain violent information, and children who are exposed to the content too early will be consciously affected, thus imitating the bad behavior, thus mimicking the bad behavior. Some research states that ‘viewing violence causes aggression in young people’. Therefore, internet censorship is necessary for children’s physical and mental health.

The censorship of the internet can protect people from leaking personal information on the internet. Without internet censorship, the internet will be full of fishing sites and fraud sites. Those sites will try every possible way to get your personal information such as credit card, address, phone number, name and so on. This information leaking may causes big losses both physically and psychologically. Like set of fake banking, apps has entered the official Google Play store. Claiming to increase the credit card limit for users of three Indian banks, the malicious apps use fake forms to search for credit card details and online banking credentials. To make matters worse, the data stolen from the victim was leaked online in plain text through a public server. Privacy information also leaks from social medias like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and so on. In 2013, when a vulnerability on Facebook revealed that the mobile phone numbers were extracted from their friends’ phonebooks, but they were never provided by the users themselves. Since many online services can access user contact lists outside of the service, such as Facebook’s messenger phone application permissions and potential connections to WhatsApp, the same personal information inference can be made to non-users. That information may be used by some criminals for personal profits. By filtering those irregular sites and blocking few privacy breaching functions of the apps, the privacy protection of people can be ensured. Therefore, internet censorship is necessary for protecting personal privacy.

The censorship of internet can be used for national security. The Internet is a tool for mass media communication. It not only helps shape global perceptions but also increase the cultural influence of countries with higher Internet penetration. Based on some general research on using the Internet and its impact on society. It is not only a source of benefit but also harmful to human beings. As Internet penetration has grown to an alarming 26.6% internationally, it has become a major propaganda medium that helps shape the world. For national security, the government need to filter dangerous information such as the method to make weapon, illegal drugs trading and terrorism information. So that, the government can make sure people can not access dangerous information that will disturb social security. The government also needs to filter panic news to prevent Civil riots. Another wise this super transparency will trigger a moral panic in social media. Internet platforms will be accused of a series of astonishing evils: addiction, fueling terrorism and extremism, promoting ethnic cleansing, and even undermining democracy. In addition, foreign hostile forces are also disseminating information that is not conducive to mother country’s political security through the network platform, which will bring certain problems to mother country’s social governance and national security. Therefore, internet censorship is necessary for ensuring national security.

Refutation

However, there are some people who think internet censorship is not necessary for people.

Opposing views claim that internet censorship prevents people’s right to speak freely. Take the example of China’s Internet censorship, the censorship of this framework is mainly about visibility. Firstly, politics involves the configuration of visible and arguable content and having the ability to make such viewing and speaking in the process of forming a community in a specific time and space. Once the way has been processed, the content that can be seen or heard will depend on the online censorship. People will lose the right to make free speech. Most speeches that are not favored by the controller will be filtered. On the other hand, internet censorship also can block those speech which is about personal attacks, racial discrimination, false information, and so on. Terrorist organizations have found social media websites to be invaluable for disseminating ideology, recruiting terrorists, and planning operations. By having the internet censorship, it can effectively prevent the occurrence of this situation. As a result, although internet censorship prevents people’s right to speak freely, it can protect people from illegal actions.

Other opposing views claim that people are being prevented from receiving the information they want. This action limits people’s Information circle. By using local social media it is hard to connect with the worldwide, some information which happened from the other countries might be blanked. However, internet censorship benefits local businesses. China, as a developing country. Many local companies are struggling to compete with other big international companies like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and so on. China’s Internet has been structured as a state Intranet. Therefore, in china’s internet censorship environment, it creates an playground for the local companies to have enough expansion space rather than relay on foreign products. Therefore, although internet censorship may limit people’s information circles, it will improve local economic development.

In conclusion, having internet censorship is necessary for people both from ethical and social perspectives. Children’s internet protection can be insure, with less chance to have personal information leaking and it can also improve national security. There are some refutations but not persuasive enough. If internet censorship does not control people’s speech, may cause some illegal activates or ethical attack. If internet censorship does not block any data from worldwide for some country that could be a huge economic loss.