Censorship: An Obstacle for True Democracy

     Since this country was founded, we have had a set of unalienable rights that our constitution guarantees us to as Americans. One of the most important rights that is mentioned in our constitution is the right to free speech. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the

Laurie Halse Anderson once said, “Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.” Censorship, by definition, is suppressing people from looking at books, movies, et cetera. In Fahrenheit 451 and The Book Thief, the government forces their community and the citizens within it to censor out what they read and look at. They do this out of fear of the people turning back on them and rebelling. And sometimes people censor themselves to stay blissfully unaware of the terror that surrounds them.

Censorship is a concept with several different meanings. To each individual censorship has its own meaning. Is it a violation of our rights or is it a protection for our well being? Censorship in the generic sense refers to the suppression of information, ideas, or opinions. It occurs in all forms of communication from technological media to print media. Each society, culture, or individual's belief is violated by the codes of censorship that our society instills.

The history of the world has undoubtedly been dominated by an endless struggle for power. However, after a brief glimpse into the pages of history it should not take long to realize that the trick to maintaining power lies in the control of information. Even the most fearsome military generals of the past acknowledge the power of the mind and ideas over lethal force. Former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin once said “… [Ideas] are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, then why should we let them have ideas.” Stalin’s quote personifies the main concept of this literature review which will be discussing the history of government censorship and its effects that are

Censorship has been adopted in many societies as well as the governments of our world. As the history of the world expands we see many countries try to censor what their citizens see. When the countries do this they are not assisting the country, they are leading it into a self-destruction. A good example of this would be America in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. This nation is destroyed in a futuristic war that only lasts a couple of minutes, if not seconds. Other fitting examples include the Nazi regime and the Soviet Union, both governments censoring their population in what they could read, write, and see. As we know both of these governments did not succeed and ultimately were obliterated and the countries were punished. Government censorship not only wounds the ability for people to grow and expand in their thought process, but it eventually causes the ultimate self-destruction of the nation.

Overall governments, organizations, and those in power often times use censorship in order to shelter or hide things from people. For example, when a parent is just doing what is best for their kid and doesn’t just let them do whatever they want. There is always a reason, often times thought to be protection. However it could potentially be more, perhaps manipulation? Whatever may be the reason censorship will remain a vastly used form of restriction that some may just need to learn to

Censorship dates all the way back to 443 BC in ancient Rome with the Office of Censor. In that time this was an office of great repute, the Office of Censor was charged with the shaping of the character of the people. Thus it was considered to be an honorable task, since then the connotation of the word and such an office has changed greatly. Today censorship is the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc. and suppressing “unacceptable parts” based on whoever is defining “unacceptable.” Unacceptable has been considered to be a wide range of concepts from ideas to sexually explicit content. Historically in the USSR most leaders used censorship in every form as a means of suppressing whatever or whoever was perceived as a

Censorship in China has gained much attention recently because of the conflict between Google and the Chinese government’s self-censorship policies. In fact, censorship has been practiced since ancient China and the intensity only increases by the years. Nowadays, the most notable measure of censorship is being done on the Internet. More and more restrictions have been put into actions by the Chinese government, which make the life of Chinese Internet users, the Chinese netizens, very inconvenient. With the intensity of censorship increasing and the censoring technology improving, Internet censorship has mainly negative effects on Chinese society.

Censorship refers to the regulation of freedom of expression or any other information that may be sensitive or morally inaccurate to the people. This information can be considered immoral or politically inconvenient by religious groups, the government, ethnic communities and media outlets. Censorship originates back in ancient times in many different countries such as Rome and China. Censorship was mainly used for political, social and religious purposes. For example, Christians used censorship to defend against non-Christian rulers threats.

Censorship has existed for as long as free thought has. The earliest instance of censorship recorded in history is marked by the death of the earliest and most famous philosopher, Socrates. As Geoff Kemp recounts in his book, Censorship Moments: readings Texts in the History of Censorship and Freedom, Socrates in the ancient Roman society was viewed as “a threat to the city and its young.” Cato, a politician and statesman in ancient Greece who led the charge against Socrates “sensed in Socratic philosophy, a threat to the traditional values of the city – one based on Socrates’ claim that wisdom lay in knowing that he did not know.” (Kemp) While Socrates encouraged his followers to question the laws and customs that they took for

Madmen can be very powerful and must never go unnoticed, however most of them gain power inconspicuously, by various means. I do not think that they gain power solely from just being voted in a democracy state. They typically start by attracting similar madmen or believers who are usually very sadistic and are aligned with their agenda. Another way that madmen rise to power and start-gaining popularity is by utilizing propaganda that can alter the easily influenced people’s perceptions and perspectives of their overall surroundings. The propaganda is not merely shouted at you to gain your attention but has an element of behind the scenes “string pulling.” The propaganda can modify voter’s opinions on critical pressing issues and cause a madman to gain power and control.

In the United States, every child, teenager and adult uses Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook, among numerous other sites, regularly. The internet is open and uncensored for the most part, other than parental controls. In China, most, if not all of those types of sites are or have been blocked. As in, you could not go to them, unless you found some way around the web filters and firewalls the Chinese government runs in their country. While China defends their practice of internet censorship, based on “protecting” the people, heavy internet censorship is a block to free speech and impedes economic and social development in the 21st century.

In, 2001, the Internet censorship laws went to the ultimate extreme. If state secrets are exported from China, the government can impose harsh penalties such as imprisonment and confiscation all belongings, and in extreme cases, the death penalty. In 2002, China banned those under the age of 18 from using Internet cafes. Internet cafe users are banned from viewing websites pose threats to “state security” i.e. websites with violence, sexuality, or heretic messages.

Censorship takes many forms in our society today. First it takes the form of political correctness. The purpose

My research project explored the extent of internet censorship and its necessity to China as a form of societal protection. It discussed the advantages, disadvantages and impacts of censorship on Chinese society. As I researched the topic, I determined that censoring parts of the internet was more than just about protecting the young Chinese children from online predators and distressing content. My initial intention was to highlight the wrongfulness of widespread censorship however, as I researched, I was able to understand that censoring parts of the internet improved the Chinese economy, prevented cybercrimes from occurring while concurrently offering online safety. I discovered this by analysing several different websites, YouTube videos and conducting two interviews with people with expertise in the Chinese internet. My outcome, presented in the form of a feature article, explained that censoring parts of the internet benefits society more than it harms.