Thottam, Isabel. “How YouTube is Using Censorship to Choose Advertisers Over Content
Creators.” Paste Magazine. 13 Sept. 2016.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, are some of the most prevalent social platforms that most people like to use religiously. But just like anything on the internet, there is controversy that surrounds it, that being censorship on these platforms. Specifically, YouTube! The demonetization of videos has become more frequent on YouTube and has caused creators to lose advertisements at the start of their videos…meaning they get not money. These creators are being censored from expressing their own opinions on their own platform! YouTube has set out certain “advertiser-friendly guidelines [that] are vague and essentially
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Has it ever had an effect on your own life? Stephanie Caudle, explained very intensely how censorship hasn’t just started to become an issue, its been an issue for as long as history has been around. Censorship doesn’t just go away. The form of censorship “has always varied depending on the era, but the idea was always the same – to suppress any radically opposing views from those of the country’s leaders”. Some examples of censorship within huge events of history include, the huge freedom rights’ uproars, fighting for freedom in certain countries, and racial differences. It is impossible to have a world without censorship because there will always be someone out there that doesn’t agree with your views. There are some countries like, North Korea and Saudi Arabia, that condone powerful internet censorship” by controlling all of the people’s information that they may try to access. Caudle is credible in the sense that she has written many big articles for the Huffington Post news site, which is one of the most popular credible news sites on the internet. A lot of her articles advocate women to be strong and powerful, just like she seems to mention again in the article when Trump is slandering these women with obscene language. Caudle provides ethical credibility when she mentions that censorship is a hard thing to get rid of “because the truth is – censorship exists even online”. The most likely audience for this article would have to be people in young adulthood. This is most resonant with this age group because these are the people that have been raised with this technology and understand what censorship on different platforms of the internet really
But the new landscape of ideas and their control leaves many people queasy and uneasy about media, morality, and responsibility. If censorship is wrong and impossible, how then to address the issue of people and companies that use media irresponsibly?
Since this country was founded, we have had a set of unalienable rights that our constitution guarantees us to as Americans. One of the most important rights that is mentioned in our constitution is the right to free speech. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
...tion is to educate people on the topic of censorship and how there are some instances where it violates our First Amendment rights. Cases of censorship will vary dependent upon where it is located, but the problem is still the same: people censor simply because they do not like something that another person has expressed. Perhaps a universal set of laws regarding acceptable censorship should be installed, which in turn would solve all types of censorship issues. Censorship will always be a problem, because there is always something for people to dislike. However, once more of the population has been educated on how censorship is only sometimes necessary, the problems with it may not be as prevalent. Censorship will never go away, but perhaps people will find a happy medium, in which things are censored only when necessary, and everyone is accepting of it.
Censorship has been a big part of the world’s history and especially America’s history. One of the most quoted amendments to the United States constitution is the first amendment; “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...” This amendment guaranteeing free speech, press, and religion is still heavily debated and contested today. Censorship, as a challenge to free speech and press has been allowed many times and has been heavily debated itself. Many people censor for many different reasons and in many different forms. Censorship itself is not always a bad thing and has in some cases been used for protection of the general population.
To understand censorship, you have to start at the beginning. Censorship, no matter the definition, is when people who have power, wish to limit the knowledge of what we are receiving, or what we are expressing. We have not always had the rights we had now. Benjamin Franklins brother and employer, was actually arrested and lost his printing license for expressing criticism in his newspaper about politics. Censorship was going strong in the Revolutionary era, when British Loyalists tarred and feathered people who spoke against Britain. Even back then, we lived in a country where our own opinions, if deemed wrong by the powerful, were quickly put to an end.
Thesis: Although some people believe that censorship is adequate to select what things does the society will be good and can live around it while others believe that there should be no censorship because it takes away your right of expression of freedom.
Censorship is detrimental to society. People can’t learn from their mistakes if we hide them. People can’t decide the best option if we say there are no options. People can’t understand each other if they don’t know what anyone is thinking. People can’t mature when they are “protected” from mean words. People can’t be themselves when they are being censored.
Do you want our future generations being exposed to violence, hate, sex, illegal substances, and false information, and then one day think it would be cool or alright to try these things? The internet is filled with dangerous information, that children should never have the freedom to access. Children learn from example, and if they search, watch, or read something on the web that could be potentially dangerous, they could be influenced or curious and think that it would be alright to imitate one day. If our children now are viewing these things, it could mean that are future generations can grow to be more violent and our world could become more dangerous than it already is today. Censorship is necessary if we plan on having our kids grow up in the safest environment possible.
Censorship has been used by governments and influential groups throughout history as a tool for political and economic gain since ancient times. The Romans thought censorship was necessary to shape the morals of society to match up with government ideals. During the 1500's the Catholic Church banned certain texts that conflicted with the established religion from being read. In these times the idea of censorship was viewed differently that it is today. With powerful organizations limiting information it was often impossible for an average person to obtain literature or hear ideas that vary from state ideals, they probably didn't even know that their information was being censored. We live in a different age today, information is more readily available and censorship is often looked at as a negative practice that limits freedoms. That said, it still exists today and can be viewed as an obstacle to true democracy.
Censorship according to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press can be defined as, “To remove anything offensive from books, films, etc., or to remove parts considered unsuitable from private letters, especially ones sent during war or from a prison”(Cambridge Dictionary). Censorship in the news and in the media takes many forms in todays fast paced world. Even with the slightly leak in information or even misleading information could cause todays world to be turned on its head and can cause people to interpret the issue in many ways which could have numerous implications. This is why such information is filtered by some governments around the world before it is aired or printed. There are countless arguments as to why or why not information should be censored as each individual is entitled to their own opinion. Censorship impacts people ability to choose freely as it is controls ideas and thoughts and thus influences their freedom of expression or their to express their views on issues, ideologies or even practice their faith.
Tackling censorship is much more important than it appears to be at the surface; taking down censorship would help preserve the expression of thought. It would help preserve the right to listen to the unaltered forms of everything. Most importantly, it would help preserve the rapidly weakening basic right of speech. Censorship has always altered the lives of many people, whether they know it or not. People are constantly exposed to the censored version of entertainment.
Censorship as defined by Wikipedia is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by a government, media outlet or other controlling body. This context in itself is not acceptable as we have no rights to limit a person’s freedom of speech as that is the basic right we have as humans. However, censorship is a step taken by relevant authorities in order to maintain national security and stability, limit actions that may insight disregard for the law be it violence or causing harm to others and prevent the corruption of children. The first point that is going to be pointed out in this essay is regarding national security and stability. It is a common practice by governments aro...
Censorship allows governments more control of society than they already have, slowly progressing governments utilizing censorship to a dictatorship. Often times, this censorship can lead to immense rebellions. A good example of this is in China, where Google has been censored by a provider called The Great Firewall of China, which censors information that could be viewed as defamatory or insulting to Chinese government and culture. According to the article “Google turns off China censorship warning” as published by BBC News Technology, “Google has had a rocky relationship with the Chinese authorities since January 2010, when the company said it may shut down Chinese operations due to a ‘sophisticated and targeted’ cyber attack. Google said at the time that it was no longer willing to censor the Google search engine”. Many journalists have also taken a look at Egypt, which also utilizes censorship. According to “Egyptian authorities step up censorship” as published by the Committee to Protect Journalists website, the new military-run Egyptian government is censoring news outlets and keep journalists, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates. “Egyptia...
Many social media sites use actual censors in order to remove content deemed inappropriate (Sandvig 2015, p. 2). This raises important questions about power and power relations on social media, however what is perhaps a less obvious concern is the impact of the algorithms that determines which users see what content. Eli Pariser (2011) introduced the concept of “filter bubbles”, where platforms like Facebook shows only what it is believed the user wants to see. Consequently the user may not be shown anything oppositional or challenging to their world view. Presumably, this filtering is done with the aim of improving user experience in mind, rather than coming from a place of ill intentions, as seeing only what one wants to see should hypothetically create a more pleasant time on a social media platform. However, the filtering becomes especially problematic considering that social media is more and more becoming a primary source of news (Pariser 2011, p. 66 cited in Willson 2013, p. 218). The inextricability of the freedom of press and democracy (Karlekar & Becker 2014, p. 32) demonstrates that it is important for an individual to be privy to a range of perspectives. This matter is further complicated by the matter of user knowledge and consent. Often users are unaware that this filtering is happening, and in
Censorship affects our society in many different ways, it affects the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the books we read, and many other aspects of our everyday lives. Even though many might argue that censorship doesn't really have a place in a society that emphases freedom of speech and the freedom to express oneself, but censorship is an essential and needed part of our growing society, it's needed in the television industry, the Internet, and the music industry. Censorship helps to make our world a better place because it creates a better environment for us to live in.