Should Censorship Be Banned From Social Media Platform?

Although we, as citizens of this country, are guaranteed freedom of speech and press by the first amendment, we are encouraged to “watch what we say”. In order to avoid unnecessary violence and to keep people from being offended, it is recommended the certain things be censored. While many may look at this censorship as a well-needed percussion it can reversely be seen as going against one's first amendment rights, in itself causing controversy.

One 's surroundings ultimately impact their thought process and decisions. In order to spread ideas, people often look to the media. However, individuals ideas can only spread as long as freedom of expression is present and the element of fear is not. When individuals do not have this freedom or they have a fear of sharing their opinions, they filter or censor their work. The idea of censorship is a prominent element of today’s society and is apparent throughout history. Examples of censorship include the banning of books, movie ratings, music lyrics and governmental attempts to control the press and the media. Governments often use censorship with the goal of controlling the

1: Censorship? How about the consequences? Have we forgotten that everything that we do corresponds to a responsibility?

Media sensationalism creates an interesting phenomenon; more often than not, the comments made by varying levels of popular culture stars become catch phrases, buzz words, and the be-all end-all definition of an individual. These occurrences happen, for better or worse, and an individual becomes intrinsically linked to those statements for the rest of their living life and well after. Sometimes these comments are uplifting and promote the betterment of man; but sometimes they serve to berate or belittle a group as well, often times with very little thought being put into what has been disseminated. In either case, they are merely the opinions of an individual who happens to be famous. At times, the subject of opinion may hold little

Once Jim Morrison said that whoever controls the media controls the mind. This shows that he had recognized the immense power and influence that the media has in our day to day lives. The media plays a very important role in the society as the source of information for every person. Hence, it is very hard for the modern society to live without the media. As a result of the media being the major source of information in our society, it is an undeniable fact the media shapes people’s opinions, attitudes and actions on particular issues (Czopp & Monteith, 2006).

Censorship within the United States is not only an immoral and "big-brotherly" practice, but also an insult to each and every one of those who call themselves US citizens. Every day, censors attempt to sanitize TV, radio, music, print, and even the Internet. In their infinite wisdom, they deem what should and should not be viewed by John Q. Public. Censors succeed in suppressing our free spirits and restraining our thoughts in virtually every medium.

One case of Instagram’s censorship is that of Scout Willis. “Scout Willis famously protested Instagram’s policy by walking around New York City topless in May, to highlight the fact that partial female nudity is legal on the street, but not on the photo app” (Kutner 4). Instagram returned Willis’s comments “…with a statement saying “we prohibit all forms of nudity on Instagram because some audiences within our global community are particularly sensitive to this type of content” (Enright 9). Now one may say that Instagram is a private company and therefore can make policies accordingly and do as they please. But one also has to look at Instagram’s intentions. Instagram is a moneymaker. Recently Facebook bought Instagram for $715 million. In addition to this huge deal they Instagram is also starting to take

Frequently, audiences are being manipulated to accept information when producers incorporate celebrity endorsement, bring fear upon viewers, and use the bandwagon technique in their PSA’s. In the PSA “The One Thing - Consent” the organization that produces this PSA, It’s On Us, integrates famous public figures to get viewers to agree with their campaign. It is a very effective tactic to use because many people tend to agree with whatever their celebrity role model is advocating.

Censorship may be protection from inappropriate materials, but it also limits free speech. For the limitation of free speech, it is reasonable why people are emphatically against censorship. It is understood that there is a need to filter some of the materials released in today’s society, but too much is being done by people who have no right meddling with everyone’s rights. Civilization has always been plagued by a never ending battle being fought over what is deemed right and wrong. In today’s culture, censorship oppresses everything in the media. From movies and music to television and even news stories, most of the content viewed today has been filtered one way or another. Restrictions have been in place since early societies have been

Political scientist Bernard Cohen once said, “The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.” Although the modern media environment may not be quite the mind-controlling conspiracy its critics make it out to be, agenda setting, or telling consumers what is “important” enough to think about, has always been a clear objective of traditional media companies. In fact, it is this function of media producers that has sustained their success by keeping consumers dependent on them for so long. But what many of these conventional media companies are failing to understand is that these same consumers are now becoming their greatest competition by developing into something more: produsers. As the film Generation Like portrays, the prominent use of social media has caused a shift in power from traditional media companies to their audiences in the practice of agenda setting.

Censorship helps to evade conflict in different ways, “Censoring hate helps to promote peace” (11 Biggest Pros and Cons of Censorship). By censoring hate we can stop the rumors of hate through our society, and we could only worry about our community, and not for those who hate. There is wealth violent material in Internet that can be accessed with ease, this exposure is dangerous because it makes

Although the United States is considered to be a “free country”, censorship is still a problem today. According to The First Amendment to the U.S constitution guarantees, the right to free speech. However, some commonly censorship in the United States include the displacement of excessive of graphic violence, government licensing media companies and journalists, creating stealth, fake new sources, and even the removal of LGBTQ+ content. The word “censorship” means the suppression of free speech, often the removal of speech that harms or offends the public. Despite the fact the word is often associated with governmental restrictions in free speech, we are still faced with non-governmental challenges. For instance, recently Youtube has regulated its policy and has restricted “forms of content from being included in videos being monetized with advertising, including strong violence, language, sexual content, and "controversial or sensitive subjects and events”. It has been evidential that LGBTQ+ videos have been restricted or removed from Youtube because of the fear that the video will be controversial. Thus, since the video does not fit the heterosexual normality America has, in the eyes of Youtube, the video should be removed. However, on the other hand a video of Logan Paul vlogging on someone’s suicide and laughing about the hanging body was trending on Youtube and was deleted by Paul himself after receiving backlash. In other words, although censorship in countries like

Media relations can be defined as one of the most significant areas of the practice of public relations. (Shaw&White, 2004) It enhances the practice of public relations by serving a systematic, strategized and mutually beneficial relationship between journalists and the public relations practitioners to build credibility, understanding and respect between the two parties. (Supa&Zoch, 2009) It is essential to cultivate a positive and healthy relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists because journalists tend to look at public relations practitioners in a negative way where they believe that they spin information to get free publicity which making it difficult for journalists to report legitimate news and at the same time, against the basic rules of news writing. (Fedler and DeLorme, 2002) Another study by Kiranjit and Halimahton (2006) also suggests that public relations practitioners and journalists are very much sceptical about each other’s role and the relationship between two of them is doubtful and uncertain. From the point of view of public relations practitioners, they complaint that journalists do not understand the role of public relations. On the other side, journalists tend to think that public relations

Social media should not moderate the comments or points of views from society due to the fact that everyone has the right to express what is on their mind. The U.S. created the First Amendment which protects the freedom of expression in essence, giving society the ability to state their opinion without fear of retribution. It is difficult to think of negative, hurtful, and spiteful comments being protected by the freedom of speech. The information and posts on social media has such a great influence over the population of the world, however it is important to remember that trolls as well as their comments should be taken lightly yet respected because it is their own opinion. Nonetheless people have become highly sensitive to trolls or any comments in which they might not agree with. Additionally it seems that trolls have a strong hold in social media yet, who are these trolls? Trolls make heinous comments on social media and are thrilled to keep anonymity as their profile. People who are behind an electronic screen are not always the most transparent and credible commentators. Many will argue that censorship is needed in social media as it could prevent excessive negativity online. Although this may have a case, if people allowed censorship of harsh and hateful believes what else will be censored in the future. Censorship in social media has the potential to create a deceitful view of society.

These promote not only the products, but also the moods, attitudes, and a sense of what is and is not important. Mass media makes a possible impression of celebrity. However without movies, magazines, and news media to reach across people all over the world people could not become famous. In fact, only political and business leaders, as well as the few notorious outlaws,