The Internet: A Free and Anonymous Place

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.

Governments, modern or ancient, regularly enforces some form of censorship during their reign. Whether they have a goal of protecting their citizens or protecting their power, many of its people often do not realize the censorship subjected to them. In the dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag finally realizes the flaws of the “perfect utopia” that he lived in. Although the author, Bradbury, created the fictional world, its theme on censorship eerily resembles the world we live in today.

Did you check your Facebook today? How about your E-Mail? If not, you may be missing something even now! In today’s fast-paced world of instant information, if you aren’t on the internet, you’re almost certainly uninformed. Networks and the internet make up an alarmingly large part of our life. We get our news (both personal and public) via the internet, we talk to friends, shop for things, pay our bills… but how vast is the monster that does all of this? This question, along with many others, is essential in the debate that rages on today: censoring the net. There are governments, not excluding our own, who believe in to some extent controlling who can access certain websites, and which are available to the general public. The very idea

In a world of ever evolving technology, it has become increasingly difficult for many leaders to censor and control the flow of information. The development of the Internet throughout the nineties has created a cosmopolitan world in which people from across the earth can communicate and share ideas and information. The development of Internet technology and social media web platforms have led to an increased desire for democracy in many areas of the world; however, some nations have worked to curtail the freedom of information flow by developing complex Internet censorship programs. While Internet censorship is a highly relevant topic in today’s society, it is mainly viewed as a problem in non-democratic countries. While at there is merit to this viewpoint, censorship is a much more universal obstacle than most people realize.

The Internet’s continuous advancement has produced the need for an on-going debate on whether or not the government should have the power to control the Internet. The idea of the government having control over what each country’s citizens can see on the Internet is also called Internet Censorship. Internet Censorship “is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet.” Internet Censorship varies from country to country depending on each country’s current usage and philosophy of how it should be used. (toptenreviews.com) Currently, there are ten countries including

The idea of censorship has been a part of society for a long time. In her book Censorship, Judy Monroe explores this topic. In her book, Monroe studied that censorship is dated back to 443 B.C. when the Roman government elected officials to check the moral and conduct of their citizens( Monroe 10). This means that censorship has been part of

In “The Internet is a Surveillance State,” author Bruce Scheiner reveals to the reader we are being watched at all times via internet. He informs the audience that everything they do online is being monitored and combined with information about us to create an online profile that we never even knew about. He believes we have no choice in the matter, and gives examples as to why we could never go completely off the charts no matter how hard we try. Scheiner then informs us “Governments and corporations are working together to keep things that way” (56). He concludes by welcoming us all into a day and age where Google knows everything about us, because we never even tried to fight it.

In today’s society an innumerable amount of discussions, disputes, and altercations have begun based on the broad matter of censorship and its many components. Censorship is commonly described as the process of controlling the information and ideas that circulate throughout a society and its inhabitants. Much of the world’s censoring transpires through the world wide web, popularly known as the internet, and is generally inflicted by the government and other powerful corporations who “contend with the issue on numerous occasions” (“Topic Overview” 1). Due to the topic being so controversial, both proponents and opponents accompany the longstanding argument. Those in favor of censoring the usage of

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

" Government intervention in internet content inhibits free speech, which is a necessity for a free society. Rhetoric that encompasses opposing points of view is essential, and any system that quenches expression of diverse opinion sacrifices its ability to be considered free. People in power can inhibit speech, revoking the freedom of the people under them. This disruption of free speech can be extremely dangerous; if powerful people, or systems of powerful people, systematically strive to squelch certain thoughts, society’s entire perception of certain issues can become skewed. This is especially prevalent in recent years, because people’s opinions are extremely influenced by the Internet. Search results can be manipulated to encourage certain opinions, which inhibits free thought.

“Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight” (Stephen Chbosky). When we think of censorship, we picture “Big Brother” staring at us through our televisions. The “Thought Police” tracking everything we do. We picture books burning at 451 degrees. However, censorship does not merely live in our imagination, nor does it live in the distant past. It is something we still see today. Time and time again, whether it be through laws banning hate speech, conservative speakers being kicked off campus, or death threats being made against those who dare challenge commonly-held social and political views, censorship rears its ugly head. Though it is paraded as

The internet has allowed for instantaneous transfer of ideas, images, videos, texts, news and anything else that can be represented on a screen that “confines of powerful and interlocking institutions: family, education, entertainment, commerce, career, the law, the military, religion and others”(Source D). In the United States, some claim that if these “institutions” were to offer too much freedom they would be unable to “perpetuate the social relations that keep them functioning”. If the internet were to be censored, important ideas would be silenced and individuals' freedom would be diminished. For instance, the government could hide information that makes them look bad or they could censor opposing ideas. Ideas do not belong to anyone, so humans should have the freedom to sift through any and every idea, image or information source on the Internet, and nobody should be able to take away someone's freedom to share

The number of Internet users is dramatically increasing since the distribution of Internet (eds Assandri & Martins 2009). Indeed, with the largest population, China has numerous Internet users even larger than the population in the USA,though few of them have the full access to all websites (Lu 2015). As information on media flows incredibly rapid in the modern era, China is one of the countries that has the most rigid restrictions on the media (Harvey 2013). The censorship in China is becoming more sophisticated, for China is able to block specific pages and terms within foreign websites and domestic websites (Harvey 2013). In addition, there is a large number of people work for the government and the organisations to censor the Internet

Men and women in the United States of America find censorship helpful when it protects their children from harmful things but they are against censorship when it is used out of context. Parents seem to appreciate censorship more when it shelters children from learning indecent things in the world that could cause danger to themselves or the others around them (in text citation). But censorship is not always good like when it is used in school’s or in books; but censorship can be helpful when it is used on the internet, social media, or in music. For instance censorship is favorable when it stops the epidemic of racism but when censorship stops an individual from saying what that individual wants censorship is not liked by many people in the United States of America ( in text citation).

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.