Freedom of Speech in Digital Age - Essay Example

Freedom of Speech Freedom of Speech Freedom of speech is part of human rights in the United s article 19. Everyone is en d to hold and express their opinions freely without any interferences. This is either orally or in writings and prints, in the freedom of art or even via any other form of media. Internet at first seemed to be promoting this freedom of expression. It provided an opportunity to anyone who wanted to express their opinions. It made it possible for people to express themselves to a worldwide audience. This had created an image that the Internet was the finally found cure for the people who suffered poor democracy in the nation. The Internet however has come up with impacts that tend to violate the freedom of speech. When many people watch and listen to the same news, their speech and line of thoughts are influenced and directed to one direction. This makes it possible to control almost the whole world. Governments may take this advantage in controlling their citizens on how they view situations in the nation. This makes it impossible for the public to have different views from the government’s desires. This indirectly degrades and reduces the effectiveness of freedom of expression. The Internet at some point has also been the root cause of great controversy. Disagreements come up due to different opinions expressed to a large number of people where many end up not accepting these opinions and fail to tolerate them. They too express their arguments building up a crush of opinions. This has attracted the governments to carry out censorships by deleting and banning some of the posts. This is how freedom of expression has ended up in violation through the Internet (Kapsampeli, n.d). Surveillance is the act of monitoring the behavior and activities of people with an aim of protection, influence and management. This act is very much common in government organizations, though there are many other different forms of surveillance. The government has used this tool in different ways to monitor and control citizens in their countries. There are different forms of surveillance. One of these forms is postal services. This is done through assessment of mails and faxes that the public use for communication. Computer surveillance is another form that helps in surveillance of information that rotates online. Telephone surveillance is also another part that the government has been relying on for surveillance of information in the Internet. Social network services have also helped the government officials in analyzing and monitoring the behavior of citizens. These among many more forms of surveillance have contributed to the violation freedom of speech for the public. Any time anyone posts information that looks offensive to the government in the Internet sites they find themselves landing into trouble before they even realize it. This has helped the government to spy on the behavior of citizens making the freedom of expression quite useless and harmful. Through this link, the Internet has been found to be abusive to the freedom of speech to many people. Surveillance creates more harm than good. When the government monitors the way people chat, what they talk about and how they talk about it, it creates a fearful condition in the way people communicate. This makes it impossible for the people to communicate freely in social media. The fact that some end up detained due to posting things that did not please the government in social media, scares away people from communicating and using the media. This happens even when people know very well that what they are posting is a fact and can create no harm. They still feel uncertain about posting the issue. With this kind of condition created, people talk and comment less about the affairs concerning the government and they end up having been violated as far as their freedom of expression is concerned. The government also ends up having a limitation of the public opinion on the way the government projects and plans are implemented. This way, the government ends up not having public based developments in favor of the public opinions. This may mislead the civil activities that may be carried out with an aim of pleasing the citizens and making life easier for them. This again may oppress the desires of the public. All this is as a result of violating the human right of expression. It is only through the expressions from the public the government will make it in following helpful paths in reaching out to its citizens. This also violates the condition of privacy. When the government can access anything said to the audience, the sense of privacy tarnishes among the citizens (ACLU, 2014). Internet has clearly been misused by the government in enhancement of surveillance. This has clearly been evidenced in the way people have been controlled through the sites in the Internet. The main purpose for Internet social media is to enhance socialization amongst citizens. This has however been misused and violated by the government, as it has taken advantage of it in controlling the public. It finds it as the easiest way, but fails to consider the impact to citizens. The Internet therefore has been considered as a bridge that has enhanced violation of privacy and freedom of expression amongst the citizens of the United States. The government therefore needs to be aware of this violation and take different dimensions in controlling and monitoring the public. Technology should be used in the right way rather than ways that weaken socialization in different nations. However, many citizens have attracted the attention of the government in using technology as a way to monitor the public. People have misused these sites by engaging in discussions that harmfully affect the government. People have planned demonstrations in social media, terrorists and enemies have been allowed to threaten citizens and the government through social media. With this kind of series of events, there is no way the government will fail to access the social media in the name allowing privacy. Violation of the rights may end up being helpful than harmful, according to how the public uses technology. However, through surveillance, violation of freedom of speech has brought about positive impacts in nation development. Security department especially has been benefited in their actions of investigation for crimes. Communication is the starting point of criminal activities. Plans are made in the communication sites then later implementation is done. This means that by monitoring communication sectors, the government and defense forces would be able to follow up plans made by criminals and hack implementation of the plans before they create harm to citizens. This has gone as far as keeping track of terrorism and learning the ways of the enemies. This means that by reduction of privacy, security for citizens is boosted and is acceptable. The monitoring of the government in social media has also helped in prevention of crimes in that it scares away many criminals in coming up with crime oriented plans. This helps the youth to engage in better and helpful activities other than becoming criminals. The freedom of speech has these disadvantages included, and many may misuse it and engage in influencing other people to join them in criminal activities. The government efforts in using it for surveillance therefore help in protecting the public from such negative influence. To improve freedom of speech in the usage of technology, it is advisable that the government should come up with laws that restrict misuse of the social media. People should create a mindset that freedom is not there to be misused. It could also help to offer guidance to the public on what they utilize their freedom for. They should learn how to make the freedom more of help to them than creating harm. That way, freedom of speech will be more positively effective (Word Systems, Inc., 2010). In conclusion, the introduction of the Internet brought an impression that freedom of speech would be upheld, as people would express themselves freely. However, this has changed with time specifically through practices such as surveillance that is carried out in a mass scale. Although the surveillance helps the authorities in preventing crimes such as those related to terrorism, it violates freedom of speech. Reference ACLU. (2014). UN Human Rights Report Confirms Government Surveillance Violates Privacy Rights. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/news/un-human-rights-report-confirms-government-surveillance-violates-privacy-rights Kapsampeli, A. (n.d). Internet Speech: Is It Free or Not? Retrieved from http://www.globaleducationmagazine.com/internet-speech-free-not/ Word Systems, Inc. (2010). Surveillance. Types of surveillance: cameras, telephones etc. Retrieved from http://www.wsystems.com/news/surveillance-cameras-types.html Read More