Freedom Of Expression And Human Rights

Nowadays, social media is practically a staple in everyone’s lives. While some use it solely to stay in touch with friends or family, others wouldn’t even know the latest of current events if they didn’t have their phone notifying them that their friends are talking about it. The Internet and social media have bred a new generation of socially-aware people which has given them a platform to learn and share on. Because this generation’s growth is largely-based online and through technology, it has formed a new brand of social activism. While some feel social media has made it too easy to claim a movement or position, others believe that it is what we need to spread a message

Today, people seem blinded by their outsized enthusiasm for social media. According to them, a few clicks can change the whole world and accomplish wonders such as curing cancer. Good intentions become sufficient on their own, as if there were no need for medicine and scientific researches anymore. Well, this is pure nonsense. Facebook’s likes cannot save African children from starvation, the same way Twitter’s 140 characters will not put an end to acts of terrorism. This notion is not even remotely debatable. For instance, the project Kony2012 had a perfect starting point; inspiring video, moving story and most importantly worldwide spread. Unfortunately, the terrorist is still at liberty, and the lack of thorough investigations is to blame. Instead of focusing on the real problems of war and kidnapping of children, the so-called activist related to the obvious and spent all of his money and energy on his movie. Ultimately, due to the predominance of weak-ties, the project was not successful. More importantly, certain tools of social networks, especially “likes” and “retweets”, encourage people to feel good about themselves, when actually they should incite them to put their efforts and means in the cause they supposedly defend. As Gladwell wrote, “[current] activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that

The right to freedom of speech as one of the fundamental human rights is enshrined in The Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is consisted of the freedom to speak, think and express oneself without censorship. Freedom of speech constitutes the essential foundations of a democratic society and the basic conditions for its progress and for the development. One of most important functions of the right to freedom of speech is that decision-making at all levels is preceded by discussion and consideration of a representative range of views. It enables the public to participate in making decisions based on the free flow of information and ideas. A decision made after adequate consultation is likely to be a better one which less imperfectly reflects

The first amendment gives U.S. individuals five fundamental rights (also known as the freedom of expression):

Article 19 states "everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social networking sites from the internet may look like just another platform to post pictures on, to share the things a person has done, or to connect to friends and families by the usage of messenger applications. However, these are not the only activities that can be done by utilizing the power of the social media and the internet. The mode of communication and interaction between the people all over the globe are now significantly being transformed by social media technologies (Edosomwan et al., 2011). These technologies have also paved the way to a different form of activism which is digital activism.

Raphael Cohen-Almagor did a remarkable job at addressing the current state of affairs in the nation of Israel when it comes to the presence of hate speech against minorities and how to appropriately resolve issues of hate speech without infringing on the rights of free speech that is important for the existence of democracy. The purpose of using this document by Emily Foster is to use the contents of the article to help support their current position on the act of democratic censorship, but wither it be in a way to promote censorship in order to maintain order, or to remove censorship as a way to promote free speech is unclear to me.

“I have a dream” countless people say this because they are allowed to. Freedom of expression is allowed and has allowed stuff to happen like slavery and racism has been taken away. It has also given us things like women’s rights. Freedom of expression is an essential part to run a successful democracy.

people are usually the ones that are low-key with their agendas and less likely to be

The right many Americans take for granted every day is the ability to speak to one another and to express their opinions through verbal and non-verbal means of communication. The First Amendment provides the right of free speech and freedom of press to the people. The Bill of Rights, also known as the first 10 amendments to the Constitution went into effect on Dec. 15, 1791, when the state of Virginia ratified it, giving the bill the majority of ratifying states required to protect citizens from the power of the federal government. One must ask, why would such a right need to be thought about for so long before enacting it for the people? Why has this never been considered to be a universal right that every man and woman should have across the world?

One of the most complex things in establishing in a government is determining how much freedom the citizens in a society has. Throughout history we have seen many different type of governments that include North Koreas’ dictatorship to the United States that has a government based on principles of democracy. In societies that have democratic governments such as the United States, England, France, and many other western European countries, the citizens have a high degree of freedom of speech. In addition, these people are allowed to have a high degree of freedom of thought. Although these are both very important to have in life because they allow you to express who you truly are, there is a difference

Freedom of Speech can only go so far before it starts to impede the right of the others, and free speech does not come before other people’s given rights.. According to Steven J. Heyman in the article “Free Speech Has Limits,” freedom of speech comes tied together with respecting the freedom of other and the rights of other people (par. 4). The author goes on to say that cutting off other peoples rights in the name of free speech can be seen as wrongful and can be faced with consequences (par. 5). Heyman continues to explain that some hate speech can be a violation of a person’s basic right of being seen as a human being (par. 12). The hate speech that does this can cause injury to the dignity of being a human being, a right that everyone has and is granted from birth (par. 2). No other right should take that away. He goes further into this topic to say that if a form of speech violates another human’s right to live with freedom from violence, it should be limited and met with consequences (par. 11). Heyman suggests that to protect the rights of others free speech should be limited from infringing a right of another person, or when it is attacking another person or their rights (par. 18).

As technology develops rapidly in the modern society, the broad social influence it brings is also widely discussed, especially about its effects on social change. In the past, social movements were raised without the help of technology, specifically without social media, whereas social media has recently played a non-ignorable role. The connection between social media and social activisms concerned, here come some different voices. Few people maintain that social media now has no practical influence on social change, while others hold the opposite view, thinking social media is already a crucial factor in it. Personally speaking, I agree with the second kind of view: it is true that social media is not able to create social movements by itself in today’s world, but it plays an important and essential part in making real social change.

Everything that we consider to be freedom of expression such as, Freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, petition, and of association are all protected by our First Amendment. The Supreme Court has previously said that this freedom is "the matrix, the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom." Without this, all other constitutional rights like the right to vote, would wither and die. Despite being the First of twenty-seven amendments in our constitutional hierarchy, the nation 's commitment to freedom of expression has been put to the test time and time again. These problems tend to arise during times when the United States is under some sort of stress from international conflict, or social protest happening here at home. People who have exercised their First Amendment rights during a time of social or economic conflict have been censored, fined, even placed in jail. Those with controversial political ideas have always borne the brunt of government repression. It was during the First World War that a person could be jailed just for giving out pamphlets opposing the war. Also, during the civil rights movement, people were beaten and jailed for picketing and protesting. People have also been trialed for discussing Darwin’s theory of evolution. It was out of those early cases that modern First Amendment law evolved. Many struggles, court cases and conflicts later, our country has become the most speech-protective country in the world.

Human rights predominantly reflect basic moralities of self respect of all individuals. Thus, all persons should be entitled to equal rights no matter their, nationality, gender, race, ethnicity, religious affiliations, political standings, language nor their class status. Furthermore, all governing countries have an obligation to uphold these universal rights. Therefore; each law that is construed on a national or international level should guarantee no discrimination towards any individuals or groups. Human rights can be governed in several aspects, for example: allowing all persons the opportunity and freedom to travel or allowing one to obtain a job is an act of governing human rights correctly. Furthermore, human rights can arrange from a very broad scope. Human rights could simply be having the right to social security, freedom of expression and education. Thus, all human beings were born with the right to freedom and equality. However, rights of an individual can be denounced in certain situations, nonetheless, those being excused need the balance of due process, which in turn, allows for fair individual rights.