An Opinion Piece
Censorship on the internet is a highly debated topic. After Elon Musk hinted at restoring former US president Donald Trump’s Twitter account, this debate has come to the forefront of everyone's conversations.
According to Elon Musk, the reason behind restoring Trump's Twitter account is that he wishes to “better free speech on Twitter”.
Yet the question many people are asking is whether you should have unmoderated free speech on the internet. Whether having full freedom over what you can or cannot say is a net positive experience. Does it grant the ability to find one’s own opinion, or is it destructive to other people's selves and, in the wrong hands, a dangerous political tool? Are people advanced enough to create their ideas?
Donald Trump was originally banned from Twitter for posting tweets that glorified and incited violence; namely, the storming of the capital from the followers of Trump. Many believe that allowing him back on Twitter would only result in racist, sexist, and other offensive tweets spreading. However, some believe believe that Twitter does not have the right to censor people, and that everyone should be allowed to speak freely on the internet.
This is a complicated topic because both sides of the argument have valid reasons behind their beliefs. These types of questions do not have a straight answer. By censoring, you could ensure that hate speech does not appear on the site. You could also make sure that important voices are not silenced by allowing people to speak freely.
But in the case of Twitter, I believe full freedom of speech is the way to go—even if that means allowing people like Donald Trump back on Twitter. The reason for this is because of the negative evidence behind what can happen with censorship.
When someone has the power to censor anything they want, it won't only lead to positive things like the censorship of hate speech and racist posts but also the censorship of traditionally positive things. One’s opinion of what is a solidly sound and valid thought could be seen as the cruelest idea for someone in another country. This is a problem because we would miss out on important things the world may need to know if they do not match up with the site creator's beliefs. Therefore, the site will have site-creator-oriented posts. The viewers will get stuck in a bubble, which is the result of the site creator's censorship. This can lead to people not being able to think for themselves because they would only become exposed to one perspective, whether “correct" or not.
On the other hand, one could argue that having viewers in this sort of bubble may be for the best. Because if the world all seems to hold similar views, there will be less debate caused by conflicting information. If everyone receives the same, yet censored, views on their sites, then at least the world could agree, whether correct or not.
For Twitter, freedom of speech is important because millions of people use and view Twitter daily. If Elon Musk decides to begin censoring people, he will have complete control over information that millions of people will be exposed to. This can-- and will-- lead to his control over how people think and act, not just on the internet. Although the internet is a small sector of our life, it has been proven to greatly affect our daily actions. We must make sure that we are getting the full picture on the internet and not just a slice of someone’s beliefs.
Censorship is a huge problem around the internet on more than just Twitter. Elon Musk's plan to better free speech on Twitter will help make sure that it does not become a place overtaken by one person’s thoughts and opinions.
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