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Freedom of speech should also be limited in scenarios whereby individuals are inciting each other, or there is hate speech towards certain people. Freedom of speech should also be limited whereby one takes away someone's rights such as through threats and discrimination. Freedom of speech should also be limited for matters of national security whereby information shared should be confidential (Freedom of Expression in the United States, 2013).
Freedom of speech can improve society. Freedom of speech allows citizens to freely criticize the government which response answer to its actions unlike whereby speech is restricted, unfair criticisms tend to rise and may spread all over the country. Freedom of speech gives the society political right which allows them to resist oppression, and injustice and have free elections. Freedom of speech allows citizens to freely express their minds on vital issues of society and access information which promotes the free flow of thoughts that preserve democracy and self-actualization for the healthy development of society.
Pure freedom is speech is not beneficial in today's world since unlimited freedom of speech is damaging to the development of society and the government's service to its citizens. In scenarios whereby speech is unlimited, unfair criticisms are made against the state in which case the state cannot respond. This results in poor relations between the state and its citizens and its a step backward to national development. Modern society often abuses the freedom of speech to hurt and harm others. For example; Television stations, air adult content without putting a warning message, and minors end up being exposed to indecent material. They should be limited to airing those programs at later hours.
Allowing people to freely spread hatred, incite violence, and ridicule other's religions and nations results in a divide and lack of peace between the people, different religions, and countries. It also violates the freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the right to religion. Every individual is entitled to free speech as long as what they say or express does not spread hatred and incite violence. Every citizen has a right to religion but allowing people to ridicule other's religions undermines our civil rights. Spreading hatred, inciting violence, and ridiculing other's religions and countries causes pain and discrimination against certain people and threatens global peace.
Telling an enemy your country's national secret violates the freedom of speech and also jeopardizes the intelligence services and national security. Free speech is also common sense, we are responsible for what we say or intend to say, and should think about the consequences of sharing national secrets with the enemy. Sharing classified information with the enemy gives them an upper hand in understanding the nation's capabilities and objectives to plan for future attacks.
The internet opens up the possibilities of pure freedom of expression by providing news means of expression and a free flow of information. There are millions of social network users online, and anyone to express an opinion can easily reach a worldwide audience (Price, 2013, pp.141-142).
Censoring websites to control what citizens can and cannot see is dangerous since it infringes the people's right to information. Adults should not be restricted from making their own choices in what to read. Censoring websites gives governments unlimited power to dictatorship (Price, 2013, pp. 141-142).
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