ISYS100 – Final Research Paper

IT and SocietyInternet 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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