Don't Censor our Internet!
On Jan. 22, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published an announcement on its website. It stated that it was launching a new campaign to “clean up the internet.” In most areas of China, the government censors parts of the public’s internet access. Websites like Google, Facebook and Youtube cannot be accessed within the country, which is why a considerable number of Chinese citizens utilize virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass what people call China’s “great firewall.” Internet censorship regulations also criminalize expressing and organizing opposition against the government and block viewership of “sensitive” words, like names of the government’s political enemies. In the announcement, the authorities said that they would start a 14-month long campaign to target the public’s use of VPNs and other internet practices considered illegal in China, lasting until March 31 of 2018. While the government’s reason for doing so is to “maintain a healthy online environment,” skeptics are unsure of the government’s true intentions behind the “cleanup.”
The result of mass censorship is Orwellian, where a free and open society is nonexistent.
Meanwhile, censorship of information is also becoming a trend with President Donald Trump. According to employees of the agency, his administration recently instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove its climate change page from its website. The page included links to the agency’s data on emissions from individual industrial facilities and information on the causes and effects of climate change. According to Reuters, employees at several federal agencies were also told that that were no longer allowed to release “public-facing documents” unless they obtained prior approval from the administration itself. Public backlash against these orders has grown, with the U.S. National Park Service’s Twitter account openly defying the rules and tweeting out facts about climate change.
With the threat of authoritarianism becoming more prominent, governments are increasingly blocking public viewership of information. It is not something new. According to BeaconForFreedom.org, in ancient Roman communities, the ideal of good governance included “shaping the character of the people.” This meant that censorship was inevitable for what they considered the greater good. When censorship of facts and information is present, governments can basically manipulate the thoughts of citizens as they aren’t showing them all aspects of the story. Instead, they are displaying to the public a certain aspect of the story to skew their perception and make the public believe what the government wants them to. It tries to stop people from learning the truth, regardless of how ugly it is.
When governments hunger for more power and control over their people, they can utilize constant suppression of free thoughts and ideas. Not only does this diminish the individuality of people’s opinions and thoughts, it also causes blind faith and patriotism to the government.
People claim it to be for the greater good, but what good does it do for the individual if everyone thinks in the exact same way because they’re presented with the exact same information? It is morally incorrect for governments to censor the information that their public receives, and history proves that people eventually begin to chafe against censorship as well.
For example, when you look up terms relating to the Tiananmen Square Massacre on the Chinese social media site Weibo, nothing appears. This is because the government blocks discussion of this topic anywhere. However, people still find a way to bypass this through referring to the event with a different name. Although the government always figures out the terms they use, they are always one step behind as the names are ever-changing. This allows them to discuss the event more openly.
The result of mass censorship is Orwellian, where a free and open society is nonexistent. However, in a world of numerous opinions and thoughts, the truth will always prevail.