Freedom of Exrpession on the Internet

As part of my first blog entry, I want to concentrate on why exactly Freedom of Speech and/or Expression is such a big deal where the Internet is concerned. Let's face it - The Internet is by far the easiest form of communication for people of all ages and all geographical locations. In essence, its a large common area where anything that anyone wants to say can be heard by anyone else on the Internet. Over the last few years there have been many debates regarding the extent to which people should be allowed their right to freedom of expression on the Internet. In my opinion, although the net provides an average person with the power to speak his/her mind out to over a million people worldwide, no country should have the right to censor the contents posted by another user, unless it causes a direct physical threat to some other user.

This very principle of freedom of expression is the most important value that a society can uphold, if we are to believe that progress of human civilization depends on individual expression of new ideas, especially unpopular ones. People who have used the Internet realize the value of this freedom, as they have been benefited by its ease of access. Examples exist such as the Tiananmen Square rebellion in China in 1990, where the Internet kept Chinese communities around the world, especially in universities, in touch with the current events through email and the newsgroups, bypassing all government censorship. If believed that there is an inherent value in truth, and that the average human being has the right to know this truth, especially that regarding his community, then the ability of the Internet to promote freedom of expression is very important. Although attempts have been made, and have been somewhat successful, in censoring or regulating the content provided to users in many countries, there is often a price that must be paid for this regulation, which may be quite high in the long run.

On a social level, one may argue that if all the potentially dangerous or offensive material were to be removed from the net, it would be reduced to a “child’s reading room”³. Citizens of a country should be allowed to view information that is true and precise, rather than being fed a sugar-coated version. Secondly, the very fact that censorship of the Internet attacks the underlying First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution should be enough to outlaw such censorship. Thirdly, an open marketplace of ideas provides a populace with the best means of making an informed decision, and lastly, it would be impractical to censor all content on the Internet. If one country were to ban the viewing of some website, the content could easily be transferred to an offshore location and be viewed just as easily as before.