Abstract
This article talks about the emergence of content being online, what made this
world digital and available online.
This piece of content also talks about how beneficial and important is the
online content for the generation we live in, how it benefits us and how it
harms us.
The need for censorship on the online content is discussed too and the damage
caused because of non censorship of content has also been discussed and few
instances of content being banned, has been brought.
Introduction
Censorship on online content is restricting and monitoring what content should
be publicised or viewed by the people globally on the world wide web. Internet
censorship is essential to keep a check on the harm that can be or is being
caused on the internet through the content to the people. There are a lot of
crimes being carried away on the internet platform, to monitor and register all
of that internet censorship is important.
Censorship on online content
Late before 21st century, the information about the world, people, science,
technology and other knowledgeable fields were limited to books. There was no
other source to get information and it was quite difficult for people to go and
search for books and get the type of knowledge about a particular thing they are
searching for. This problem of content limiting to books was no longer a problem
and started to eliminate when digital and online platforms came into power.
People no longer had to go and search for books and study materials to find
knowledge. Everything was just a click away on the online digital platforms.
The digital online platforms started providing content on every field any person
could ever ask for vis-a-vis sports, science, technology, arts etc.
Posting the content online on world wide web should really be authentic, safe
and should not contain any kind of infringement as it reaches out every corner
of the world, thus it needs to be monitored and censored by the censor board.
Why is there a need of censorship on online content?
It is the right of every individual to have the ‘freedom of speech', it is to be
also monitored that the content or the speech shouldn't infringe someone's basic
or fundamental right. To have a control over that and to monitor the evil acts
on social media, censorship is the need of the hour and thus was introduced. For
instance, Child pornography should never be tolerated and the content which
promotes such acts should be strictly taken down from internet so that a wrong
message shouldn't be reached globally. Offensive content such as racial hatred,
obscene content, demeaning someone should never be out there available for the
mass because it damages the humanity.
Another major reason of internet censorship is, the internet users are very
captive because they do search for the content and are keen to know that, if the
content shown or viewed by them would not be authentic or would damage a
particular part of knowledge or society that'd be a curse to the internet and
online users. In this modern era social media creates a stir, so anything and
everything posted online rapidly becomes viral and can defame and demean the
innocent people of the society.
What are the main motives of making the online content censored?
- Preventing access to the copyrighted contents or patents
- Regulate minors from viewing any sensitive content
- Stop the people from viewing obscene and harmful content on internet
- Control and regulate the cyber crime
- Monitor the opinions, voices of people being raised global
Every year there are endless internet cyber crimes being reported and a huge
number of them are monitored and censored due to the provision of censorship of
content.
Few Instances of Censorship are:
- Orkut and Indian Law Enforcement Agreement (2007)
In 2007, Orkut was to track down because of the defamatory content which
included critical content about Bal Thackeray.
- 32 websites blocked in 2015
In 2015, 32 websites The Department of Telecommunications ordered to block 32
websites which included the Internet Archive, GitHub, Dailymotion and Vimeo, as
they were accused of hosting terror content relating to ISIS.
- Porn Ban (2018)
In October 2018, the government of India ordered 827 websites that hosted
pornographic content to block and directed the internet service providers to ban
the pornographic websites across the country.
Therefore, it is really important for a content to be censored, regulated and
monitored before it goes out on internet and reaches every corner of the world
because, it is believed that once a damage is done on the internet it gets
really strenuous to repair it or sometimes the damage can't even be repaired.
Conclusion
The article deals about the content of today on internet and what is the need to
make it censored or regulated.
Also it throws light on the damage and harm being caused if no censorship was
done. It also talks about how censorship stops a huge damage which could be done
to the humanity and the world if it lacked censorship.
Lastly it also gives us information about some internet censorship being carried
by the government and how it saved some people to get defamed and how it saved
some people's basic fundamental rights.
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