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The debate on censorship
The debate on censorship
Debate against freedom of speech
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In Voltaire’s biography, S.G. Tallentyre penned the famous quote, “I disapprove of what you way, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This quote is often repeated in first-amendment discussions and freedom of speech debates, as it acknowledges the need to preserve freedom, even in spite of its allowance for distasteful and even potentially offensive expression.
The internet is a powerful venue for knowledge. With information on virtually any topic, collaborative forums, and a massive library of media, it seems at times that everything is available on the internet. However, it is not without its darker side. Within these vast catalogues of knowledge lurk immense amounts of disagreeable, offensive, and obscene material. Just above the blatantly illegal, this distasteful layer of information contains content that could be labeled as vile and revolting by any culture’s standards. The notion of striking this unsuitable material from the internet, and declaring hateful and repulsive content as ‘unfit for public consumption’ is tempting; essentially, mitigate the issue by removing offending content. In our effort to protect ourselves, however, we cannot disregard the freedom of speech. Is it proper to restrict expression on the internet for the sake of limiting exposure to offensive material?
The contention between freedom of speech and decency regulation supporters tends to dissipate when it comes to the topic of children. The objective for all involved appears to be the protection of the young (Seiger 14). To this effect, parents naturally serve as the front-line defense, and given the subjective nature of ascertaining the intolerable, they should also play a crucial role as decision makers for technical ...
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...Works Cited
Fee, John. "Obscenity and the World Wide Web." Brigham Young University Law Review 2007.6 (2007): 1691-1720. Business Source Complete. Web. 22 Dec. 2013.
Reno v. ACLU. 521 U.S. 844 Supreme Court of the United States. 26 Jun. 1997. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 22 Dec. 2013.
Ranum, Marcus. "Should Network Security be Based on Blacklisting or Whitelisting?" Information Security 14.1 (2012): 16-18. Applied Science & Technology Source. Web. 22 Dec. 2013.
Sieger, Jonah. "Communications Decency Act Is Defeated: Landmark Victory For Netizens." Communications of the ACM 39.8 (1996): 13-15. Business Source Complete. Web. 22 Dec. 2013.
Tallentyre, S.G. The Friends of Voltaire. London: Smith, Elder, & Co, 1906. Open Library. Web. 22 Dec. 2013.
United States. Cong. Telecommunications Act of 1996. 114th Cong., 2nd Sess. S. 652. Washington: GPO, 1996. Web. 22 Dec. 2013.
Voltaire, and David Wootton. "Candide." Candide and Related Texts. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2000. 35-42. Print
Voltaire. Candide. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1918. Project Gutenberg. Web. 11 January 2014. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19942/19942-h/19942-h.htm
An earlier version of the law -- the 1996 Communications Decency Act -- was struck down as an unconstitutional restriction of free speech when challenged by the ACLU; the 1998 version attempted to address the constitutional concerns by limiting its scope to commercial websites, and carving out an exception for material that has "serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors." (Communications)
Voltaire, , and Roger Pearson. Candide: And Other Stories. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Print
And it means remembering the trade-off: Everyone gets to say what they want, as long as they don't provably harm or injure other people, and then you get to say what you want - which is indescribably and supremely valuable.
Frautschi, R.L. Barron's Simplified Approach to Voltaire: Candide. New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 1998.
Voltaire, Francois-Marie Arouet de. “Candide.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Gen. ed. Martin Puchner. Shoter 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2013. 100-59. Print.
“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to death your right to say it,” were the famous words of Fracois Marie Arouet, more commonly known under the pen name of Voltaire. He was known for being very outspoken and rebellious, which got him into trouble with the authorities for most of his life. Voltaire advocated the French bourgeoisie as being ineffective, the aristocracy as being corrupt, and the commoners as being too superstitious. Voltaire’s beliefs on freedom and reason is what ultimately led to the French Revolution, the United States Bill of Rights, and the decrease in the power of the Catholic Church, which have all affected modern western society.
Maurois, Andre. “The Sage of Ferney, An Appreciation.” New York City: Bantam Dell, 1932. Voltaire. Candide. Translated by Lowell Vair. New York City: Bantam Dell, 2003.
Stevens J, Opinion of the Court, Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 (1997) [1]
The Wex Legal Dictionary describes the term obscenity as “lewd, filthy, or disgusting words or pictures,” speech that is not protected by the First Amendment (CIT1). Another way one could define this term is words, images, or actions that “offend the sexual morality of its viewers (CIT2).” It is perhaps unsurprising that, in the vast expanse of today’s Internet, where anyone in the world can upload whatever they please, words and images that fall under this category are quite common. Also unsurprising is the fact that there has been more than one court case involving this subject. Obscenity and the Internet often go hand in hand, and share an interesting past, present, and perhaps future.
Since the internet has been available in schools and libraries in this country, there has been a debate about what should be accessible to users, especially minors. The amount of information disseminated on the world wide web is vast, with some sources valuable for scholarly and personal research and entertainment, and some sources that contain material that is objectionable to some (ie. pornography, gambling, hate groups sites, violent materials). Some information potentially accessible on the internet such as child pornography and obscenity is strictly illegal and is not protected under the First Amendment. Some information available on the internet that may be valuable to some is at the same time perceived to be worthless or potentially harmful to some. For libraries serving the public, there has been controversy on the issue of providing the internet, free of censorship or filtering, to users. While some librarians and their professional associations align with ideals of free and unfiltered access to all information provided by the internet, some feel that filtering internet content to exclude possibly objectionable materials is a reasonable measure to prevent potential harm to minors.
Technology has provided our society with numerous innovations that have been created to improve the quality of life on a daily basis. One such innovation is the Internet. The access to a wide variety of information is perhaps the most valuable tool, as well as the most important tool, that we have entering the twenty-first century. There are virtually no limits on how much can be achieved through the use of the Internet. This is not, however, necessarily a good thing. Most people find that offensive material such as child pornography and hate-related propaganda can be viewed by people too easily via the Internet. While child pornography is a detestable subject, it does not have the sort of appeal that a hate group website does in that there are stricter guidelines preventing individuals from attaining child pornography material from the Internet. These stricter guidelines include the Communications Decency Act (1995), which forbids the use of the Internet for such purposes as attaining material of a child pornographic nature (Wolf, 2000). This law can also be used to monitor the hate group websites, but since the law is too broad, it is rarely held up in court. The hate group websites do, however, have a large enough following that there is legislation being formed to specifically target the material on the sites. Despite the highly offensive nature of hate group websites, the sites should not be censored because the right to free speech must be preserved. In this paper we will define what is considered to be hateful content; why this hateful content should be protected; what else can be done to monitor this material on the Internet; and when are the people cr...
McCarthy, M. (2005). THE CONTINUING SAGA OF INTERNET CENSORSHIP: THE CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION ACT. Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal, (2), 83-101.
There are two real issues at stake when looking at this controversial topic. The first issue is finding a way to protect our children from potentially damaging material. There are advocates to censoring the Internet and removing this type of material because it will help shelter our children from this type of content. On the other hand, Free Speech advocates believe that it is the individual citizens right to have access to this typ...