Written by: Prashraya Shrestha - 26014, Grade X
Posted on: 09 June, 2023
Freedom of speech is a fundamental right given to us. This right gives us access to present our opinion in topics freely unless it is hurtful to a certain group or individual. Censorship is a prohibition or suppression of certain ideals, opinions and information. This might be done if the content is deemed offensive or damaging. This is regulated by government co-operations, private corporations and other undercover bodies.
Due to the rise in social media online censorships are at an all time high. The content which is exposed to us, is filtered by the algorithm and the content made on certain topics are taken down. Most of the time, due to censorship we are exposed to one part of the argument but the other part of the argument is hidden from us. In this day and age saying “gay people should be given equal rights” is equal to saying “straight people are terrible”. This hinders our ability to come up with conclusive solutions. This has caused rights or wrongs to be determined by governmental bodies. And freedom of speech is non-existent in this world. The censorship nowadays is so strong that the fundamental right given to us as human beings is being oppressed.
But why do people censor content? This is due to human’s obsession with power. Power: the ability to influence someone's action or in simple words, it is the ability to control someone or something. Our opinion and ideals are the bi product of the information we are exposed to which means if someone has control over the information we are being exposed to they have control over our ideals and a human being without ideals is just a machine made out of flesh. I do not understand people's desire to control or their obsession for power. In my opinion if a person is a functioning human being and is contributing to society they should not be censored. If a person decides to change their gender, people should not try to control them because at the end of the day no matter their gender, religion or age, they are a human being who is contributing to the society. The best way to counter censorship is forming your own ideals, trying to understand both ends of the argument and understanding the perspective of people and their reasoning behind the action.
Even though censorship is bad. Freedom of speech should also have its limits. Censorship is fine if they censor content which is morally wrong. The right to freedom of speech should not be used to harm any groups or individuals. Threats are also speech but it intends to silence an individual or a group so it is morally wrong. The same goes for fraud and hateful comments. We should be respectful towards people while we present our views and opinions. We should also make sure the other party was hurt by the comment we made.
In conclusion, we should find a middle ground between censorship and freedom of speech and before discussing a certain topic we should determine the perspective, the reasoning and the intention behind the argument.
