Pros and Cons of Censorship: Controlling Media and Ideas

Censorship, or what I like to call “controlled media”, is the control of ideas and content in our world. For as long as people have discovered that human beings have free will, there has been a way to regulate, govern and block the expression of its uses. There are many types of censorship when it comes to military, religion, political, public media or for just morale reasons. There have naturally been debates on whether censorship has truly been a restraint of expression, imposed to protect people from themselves and to others, or just, for the most part, futile in this day and age. I believe these are all valid reasons for why censorship has its pros and cons, but nonetheless is rather pointless.

Censorship is valuable when it comes to hiding sensitive military information since it can be used by the enemy. Some might say censorship is absolutely need in protecting your nation, which falls under military censorship purposes, but is it more important than for morale reasons? In the article The Web, the Spider and the Fly Seydou Amadou Oumarou & Rene Lefort basically answers that question, “Government restrictions can be enforced in the name of morality, but above all they are used to prevent the use of the Internet for "subversive" ends.” (2). The government may see censorship more has a way to protect themselves more than protecting its people, but I personally believe the people is more important as there is no need for government without the people. Censorship can protect people for several reasons. It blocks content such as pornographic images or dangerous, impressionable stunts from corrupting and harming the youth. Spreading racism, false/harmful information, offensive content, and detrimental influences to a different cul...

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...e directed to a Korean government block page. This lasted about two weeks until some of them found a way to bypass. I forgot how since I’m not that versed in the ways of the computer, but nonetheless this is just an example of why censorship is pointless to me.

I liken censorship to using a double-edge sword. It can be an invaluable weapon in theory, but it can also be misused and cause recoil. A suppression of ideas and content of course is good against the wrong people, but also inhibits and restrains people who are knowledgeable enough. Just imagine if they kept the information of the world being round not flat from people just because they thought Pythagoras and Aristotle were crazy and didn’t think people can handle the truth. In my humble opinion censorship is helpful in some occasions, harmful for many reasons, and a non-factor in the wide scheme of things.