ISYS100 – Final Research Paper

IT and Society
Internet Censorship

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................2
Internet Censorship in last five years..........................................................3
Positive effect on society.............................................................................4
Negative effect on society...........................................................................7
Conclusion.................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................11
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Introduction
The internet is an open platform which allows its users to share their ideas
and content on the platform. Due to its openness and independence, the
amount of content shared on the internet is substantial which also include
explicit content that is not beneficial for the society (Curran, Fenton &
Freedman, 2016). It raises the significance of internet censorship to
govern data sharing on the internet in order to ensure that it did not
adversely affect the interest of people, corporations and society. Internet
censorship is referred to the control or suppression which is generally
exercised by the government in order to limit what can be accessed,
viewed or published on the internet (McPherson, Houmansadr &
Shmatikov, 2016). This is a highly controversial topic since many people
argue that the censorship infringes their right to access the internet
freely. In previous five years, the role and impact of internet censorship
have changed significantly, and new rules are introduced by governments
across the globe in order to limit the access of people to the online
content. This report will evaluate the changes in internet censorship
policies across the globe in the past five years. This report will analyse
how censorship can have both positive and negative impact on the
society.
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Internet Censorship in last five years
In the past few years, countries which have implanted strict internet
censorship policies have increased significantly. Many global incidents in
the past five years have shown how vulnerable users’ data is on the online
platform which raises the importance of internet censorship. Moreover,
the number of children who have access to the internet has increased
along with explicit content online. It has become easier for users to access
explicit content on the internet which raises the concern of parents since
access to the internet is important for their education; however, it gives
them access to explicit content online (Craun, Bourke & Coulson, 2015).
Many times, websites purposely show advertisement or spam message
which lead the user to a website which has explicit content. On the other
hand, many times authorities use internet censorship to limit or prohibit
the access of the nation to the information for their ill intentions. For
instance, China is a good example. The Republic of China has
implemented one of the most extensive internet censorship in the work
which is governed by a wide range of laws and administrative regulations.
There are over sixty internet restrictions which have been introduced by
the government of China which are governed and managed by state-
owned ISPs, companies and other organisations (Yang, 2016). Therefore,
the motivations for implementing internet censorship policies range from
well intentional desires in order to ensure that the children are protected
from unsuitable content online to authoritarian attempts to controlling the
ability of the citizens to access the information.
Along with China, many other nations have started to implement internet
censorship policies on their citizens in the last five years. A good example
is India; in 2015, the government of India blocked 32 websites which were
hosting content by terrorist groups (Akolawala, 2015). Many users
criticised this decision which breaches the principles of democracy and
free speech, however, many countries started implementing policies of
internet censorship in order to band terrorist content. For instance,
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YouTube and Twitter are working hard to remove jihadi materials and
videos posted by members of ISIS beheading people (Arthur, 2014). The
introduction of internet censoring policies is considered a war against
terrorism. According to a recent study by Freedom on the Net highlighted
that around two-third or 67 percent of internet users live in countries in
which criticism of the government, ruling family or military is subject to
censorship.
Around 35 percent of the global internet population did not have free
access to the internet, and 29 percent have partly free access to the
internet (Gray, 2016). In 2017, the Trump Administration passed a bill
which releases telecommunication corporations such as AT&T and Verizon
from having to protect the data of their customers. This bill resulted in
increasing the risk of jeopardy of users’ data, and it opens them for
surveillance (Jacobson, 2017). Furthermore, the policies of net neutrality
can result in increasing challenges for users because it enables
organisations and the government to limit the access of users to specific
content which they have for which resulted in terminating the openness of
the internet (Curran, Fenton & Freedman, 2016). Since the number of
internet censorship policies has increased substantially in the past five
years, the controversy surrounding the topic has increased as well. There
are both positive and negative implications of implementing internet
censorship policies which affect the society.
Positive effect on society
Following are various benefits of implementing internet censorship
policies on society.
 Limitation of criminal activities
The key advantage of imposing internet censorship is that it assists in
limiting criminal activities on the internet. Since the internet is an open
and global platform, it is used by criminals, organisations and others to
conduct illegal activities. For instance, the internet is used for recruiting
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members for terrorist groups, hacking bank accounts of individuals, online
scams, identify theft and phishing. These are only some of the illegal
activities which are conducted on the online platform by parties, and a
large number of people have fallen victim of these criminal activities (Al-
Saqaf, 2016). By implementing internet censorship policies, the
government can prevent these illegal activities by banning malicious
content from the web and closing any suspicious activities.
 Protecting children from sex trafficking and pornography
Due to unsupervised access to the internet, children become prey of
predators that use online platforms to engage with children in order to
collect child pornography and other malicious acts. The dark web has
provided a place for people to buy and share child pornography. These
places are also used by criminals for sex trafficking of children which has
become a significant issue which is difficult for the government to prevent
(Greer, 2016). Implementation of internet censorship policies resulted in
avoiding sex trafficking through online networks, and it also puts a ban on
child pornography. By imposing internet censoring, the violators will be
punished for their actions, and the number of children who become victim
in these crimes will be reduced. Recently, the government of India has
imposed a ban on porn sites in order to reduce the number of people who
watch porn online. India is 3rd most porn watching country, and the
number of porn watchers in the country is continuously growing. Thus, the
government used internet censorship in order to put a stop to this growing
number of porn viewers.
 Strong online security
The government can impose a ban on online activities which are
suspicious or fraudulent in order to strengthen online security. The
number of cyber-attacks has increased substantially in the past few years
along with other online crimes such as cyber bullying, identity theft, data
breach and others. A good example is leak of more than 500 explicit
images of celebrities on the internet which was leaked from their iCloud
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accounts. By implementing internet censorship policies, the government
can put a ban on any suspicious activity which is used by cyber-criminal to
collect private data of users (McPherson, Houmansadr & Shmatikov,
2016). It will also limit the access of cyber criminals on the internet which
will limit different ways which they used to violate private information of
users.
 Strong national security
Internet censorship laws which are implemented by the government to
stop hacking and violation of privacy can result in preserving national
security from cyber criminals. Countries are facing challenges of cyber
warfare in which terrorists use online mediums to collect national secrets
which could be used by them to violate the security of the country
(Bradshaw & DeNardis, 2018). After imposing strict censorship, it will
become impossible for bad elements such as terrorist and others to pose
a threat to the security of a country.
 Avoidance of identity theft
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes across the globe. The
number of cases in the United States of identity theft was increased
substantially in 2016 in which more than 15.4 million users reported the
theft of their identity (Sullivan, 2017). Due to ease of access on the
internet, the number of cases involving identity theft is growing
continuously. Restricting online content will allow the government to avoid
the theft of information of parties which is easily shared on the online
mediums. It will assist in reducing the negative impact of identity theft on
the society.
 Stop fake news
The number of fake news has increased dramatically in 2017 as fake news
websites started to use social media sites and other platforms to share
them to a wider audience. The number of websites which promote false
reports generating more money through clicks has increased; therefore,
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more people believe that these news stories are real. Due to popularity of
social media sites and instant messaging application, it has become easier
for people to share fake news, thus, it spread quickly (Allcott & Gentzkow,
2017). By putting censorship on the internet, the number of fake news
websites will be prohibited by the government to ensure that they did not
post false information to get more viewers that will remove the issue of
fake news.
Negative effect on society
Along with positive influence, there are various negative impacts of
internet censorship on the society which resulted in creating new
challenges for people.
 Ban on freedom of expression
As the government bans the free internet, it also bans the right of people
to freely express their views online. It is a fundamental right of people
that they have the freedom of expression based on which they have the
right to give their opinions online freely. The opponents of the internet
censorship argue that putting a ban on the free internet by making any
law to govern the freedom of the press, speed and expression is
considered as a violation of basic human rights (Lipschultz, 2018). Under
the Constitution of the United States, the First Amendment puts a
prohibition of making any laws which resulted in infringing the freedom of
speech and press, among others. This internet censorship limits the right
of individuals to freely express their opinions on an open platform which is
a violation of their basic right.
 Deprive people of learning the truth
If a ban is imposed on the type of content which press and other online
mediums can publish, then it will result in depriving people of learning
about the truth. The government or other authorities can use internet
censorship to hide the truth and ensure that it did not get out in public. In
today’s digital era, movements such as “Metoo” have shown the power of
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the free internet. Women and other individuals are empowered to share
their story online and punish those people who harassment or exploit
people (Yang, 2018). It shows the positive impact of the free internet
which benefits a large number of people, and it can be used by individuals
for a much-needed ‘clean-up’ of society. On the other hand, putting a
censorship will limit the freedom of expression of people due to which the
government and other authorities will control what can and cannot share
on the internet which resulted in depriving people from the truth which
negatively impact on the society, especially for minorities, women or
individuals who did not have the power to reach a wider audience or make
sure that their voices are heard (Mina, 2014). It is impossible to
categorised information on each website as ‘harmful’ or ‘safe’ which
means that websites which have important and helpful information will be
banned as well, thus, it resulted in promoting ignorance about significant
events and development across the globe which is bad for the society.
 Controlling information for one’s benefit
There are people all around the world who take unfair advantage of their
powers to exploit the rights of others. For instance, government officials
who are in the control of internet censorship policies can use them for
benefiting their government or candidate by prohibiting others to share
negative information about them (Du, 2016). It raises the issue of who
watches the watcher because if it is not directly supervised, then it leads
to unethical outcomes.
 Difficult and expensive to implement
Implementation of internet censorship is challenging because security
agencies and governments did not have sufficient funding to implement
internet censorship policies. In 2015, shutting down the internet cost over
$2.4 billion to countries. In this decision, Egypt suffered a cost of $90
million for cutting internet connectivity (West, 2016). Thus, it shows that
imposing of internet censorship is an expensive process which will come
at the expense of taxpayers. It will also adversely influence the economy
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at a global stage because the government defines what is ‘good’ or ‘bad’
which will influence economy at local level. Small business owners who
use e-commerce platform will be at a disadvantageous position than
compared to industry competitors which will negatively reflect on the
economy of the country.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, the imposition of internet censorship policies will have both
positive and negative impact on the society. Putting internet censorship
policies will benefit the society by reducing the number of cyber-attacks
and leaking of private information of people. These policies can avoid
identity theft of individuals, and they can strengthen online security
policies. It can improve national security and protect children from sex
trafficking and pornography. However, it violates the right of individuals to
express their views on the internet freely. The internet is an open platform
which is used by people to collect information and developments across
the globe. But, putting internet censorship will limit the access of
individuals to this information. These policies can also be used by
authorities and officials to unfairly take advantage of their power for
personal gain which is negative for their society. It is also an expensive
process which can negatively impact the economy of the country. Thus,
until there are effective policies for ensuring that internet censorship did
not negatively affect society, imposing a ban on the free internet is not a
good option for society. The governments should choose alternative ways
to protect children and national security.
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References
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blocked in India. Retrieved from https://www.bgr.in/news/here-is-
the-complete-list-of-857-porn-websites-blocked-by-india/
Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social media and fake news in the
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Al-Saqaf, W. (2016). Internet censorship circumvention tools: Escaping the
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Arthur, C. (2014). Taking down Isis material from Twitter or YouTube not
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Greer, J. (2016). Children and internet pornography: a moral panic, a
salvation for censors and Trojan horse for government colonisation
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