CPST 3030: Is Censoring Social Media Ethical? Balancing Free Speech

This essay explores the complex ethical considerations surrounding the censorship of free speech on social media platforms to control the spread of fake news and hate speech. It examines the responsibilities of both governments and social media companies in regulating online content, weighing the importance of cultural diversity and freedom of information against the potential for misinformation and social harm. The essay considers utilitarian ethics and the role of censorship, while also acknowledging the limitations of artificial intelligence in identifying hate speech. The author concludes that social media platforms themselves should bear the primary responsibility for monitoring and controlling content, balancing the need for accountability with the preservation of democratic values. Desklib offers a wealth of similar academic resources for students.

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Selected question: Is it ethical to censor people’s right to free speech in social media in order to
control the spread of fake news and hate speech?
Introduction:
The modern-day blessing, social media are also doomsday machines. They have the
capability of distracting, disturbing and initiating division among groups. The spread of
misinformation has led to several injustices that were only due to people believing absurdities.
People are easily manipulated and carried away by information associated with them. In the era
of technology and social media, information can travel at a very fast speed (Grigonis, 2017). The
paper aims to discuss the ways it is ethical to censor people’s right to free speech in social media
in order to control the spread of fake news as well as hate speech.
Discussion:
It is important to understand that it is only an additional responsibility on the government
or the responsible organization to regulate information on social media. The first responsibility
and the most ethical approach would be social media taking responsibility for the fake news.
Therefore, in the first place, the government would not require to play any role if social media
takes control themselves. If the government is adequately potent to control information on social
media, social media companies as well my put an effort to filter information before releasing
information to the audiences (Prajuli, 2018). It is essential to understand that the media has very
less role to play as political propaganda. There is no one precisely who can be held responsible
or fake news. Ensuring its contents will not be a violation of freedom of speech. Since social
media is highly capable of various things, it may even regulate media precisely without the
interference of government. The social media needs to be aware of its power and the

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consequences, considering the aspects requires to initiate measures that would prevent spreading
fake news.
It is unethical since a social media platform is vast platform consisting people across the
world. Facebook has been developed within Silicon Valley, and majorly involves western values
however, the platform is used across the world. Culture diversity is inevitable however it is not
easily taken care of easily. People are highly sensitive to their cultural values and it is important
to consider cultural aspects. Constraining social media in regions that are culturally different will
be part of restriction of freedom of speech. It is necessary to understand the extent of the
consequences and filter the content accordingly. Therefore, it is important to control and monitor
the contents of social media and not deprive the people from the entire story. People will be
deprived of their basic human rights when they are not given access to information they seek.
There is certainly a possibility of information being misused (Mozur, 2018). People tend to lose
their peace of mind when anything comes near to violation of their culture. Some social media
apps in china have already taken initiatives that involves controlling the social media. Some
popular social media sites such as twitter, Google, Whatsapp and Facebook messenger and
YouTube are not entertained in china, they are replaced with websites that can be controlled by
the government. The government strongly monitors the virtual world of social media and it takes
immediate actions when there is any content that defy or criticize the communist party. With
large population, the impact of any misinformation can be very impactful leading to serious
social violence. People in minorities may get effected drastically. People get the opportunity of
raising their voice in social media therefore losing the control of the social media will raise
concerns associated with cultural aspects (Bbc.co.uk, 2017).

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The situation can be called unethical as the last outcome is not pleasant or commonly
good for the large number of people. Looking at the outcomes of free speech on social media, it
can be said it is ethical that social media uses data of people using the platform. Social media lets
the users use the platform free of cost which makes it even easier for them to type unfiltered hate
speech. Therefore, before a person makes use of the social platform, social media requires data
that help them to a certain extent. Although it is against the ethics of confidentiality, on the social
platform, it is essential to understand the outcomes of privacy. One of the latest frontiers of for
lawyers are the social networks and media along with politicians, entrepreneur, and academics.
Social media was initially only a way for social networking, which now has turned into a place
that can make possible critical issues. The platform has rapidly raised the way people can now
communicate and connect with people across the world. Therefore, exchanging thoughts have
become more straightforward and easier. It has also become easy to connect with people from
different cultural backgrounds. Despite the positive aspects, there are negative aspects as well. It
has become easier to target a group and insult, create false conception about groups or
minorities.
Following the utilitarian theory of ethics, when the action is done in order to prevent the
wrong action from occurring it is an ethical act (Mill, 2016). Therefore, signing on specific
requirements help in preventing bigger problems. Disclosure of certain data is necessary that
would help social media taking control of its platform. Although there is a big part that needs to
be played by the social media that is to ensure the information provided by the users are safe.
Keeping the information safe within the soil platform will help in a similar aspect as well.
It is ethical since the fact cannot be denied that it is a dangerous aspect of social media
and needs acute prevention. Through social media, every person gets the voice to raise that is

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possibly not the same in real life. Through social media, social issues become prominent and the
magnitude of the issue is identified to be widely vast. The censor has been playing role in
filtering information that reaches the audience. However, censure is also considered as the
suppression of speech and public communication. The problem that arises when the government
is approached in order to control social media, a question of ethics is considered. It would be
unethical for the censor to take control. Any material that is deemed to be harmful or prone to
cause social disorder is filtered out by the censor. A private institution or the government can
regulate censorship. Censor can play a vital part in preventing the fake news; however it is
essential to know a limitation. When Censors play the role of limiting content from reaching
audiences, it can be considered a violation of basic human rights, the right to information. People
are deprived of their right to information, and therefore it is unethical when the censor takes
control of the materials that are published online. According to utilitarianism, the action will be
considered to be the right action when it benefits the more significant number of people.
Therefore, from the perspective of utilitarianism ethics, the action of censor can be called the
right action.
The problem needs serious actions to be controlled. There is a need of strong criteria that
would help identifying potential threats. The criteria that are needed to be checked in posts are
critical to understand as information are perceived in different way in different areas. The impact
of information can be time oriented, culture oriented and space oriented. However, there are
some aspects that can be called judging criteria of social posts (Dwoskin, 2019). Some
speeches are the categorized as the hate speech. It is hard to identify the hate speech through
artificial intelligence and it struggles to identify appropriate hate speech. There is no denial that it
is one of the hardest problem faced by the social media. For social media, it is hard to identify

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social posts that reflects hate speech. While some come as jokes, some come in with the social
media term ‘memes’. Trolls make the full effort in evading personal space and poison classifiers.
Artificial intelligence can only identify key words that are considered breaking the rules however
technical expert certainly knows the ways they can fool artificial intelligence. Several sites are
undertaking critical initiatives that would recognize various ways of identifying posts that are
harmful for the society. YouTube has made its algorithm accordingly that would help detecting
videos that are misinformation. As there is no such part that technically violates the rules of the
website, the video cannot be removed from the website (Matsakis, 2018). However on
identifying such videos, the website would not let it appear on its recommendation. Through this
process, YouTube is working on balancing its free speech and still preventing spread of
potentially harmful contents. There is need of more research on this aspect in order to prevent
such issues.
Conclusion:
An unethical decision would require in-depth realization of the entire situation. People in
various groups may face difficult situations due to introduction to the social media to culturally
different regions. People in minority groups, belonging to the communities that are not socially
acceptable everywhere may face life threating challenges. Therefore, there is a need of
accountability for the social media materials. When comes to taking the accountability, the social
media itself should bear the responsibility of these specific issues. The social media needs to
understand the difference between monitoring social media by government and monitoring social
media by social media itself. Ethical decision would be considering the impacts and the causes of
that situation. The control of media should be performed by the social media platform itself. An

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appropriate approach needs to be taken by the social media as it controlling by the government is
a loss of democracy.

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Referencing:
Bbc.co.uk. (2017, September 26). Social media and censorship in China: how is it different to the
West?. Retrieved February 15, 2019, from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/41398423/social-media-and-censorship-in-china-
how-is-it-different-to-the-west
Grigonis, H. (2018, February 17). Should Governments Moderate Social Media -- or the
Networks? Retrieved February 15, 2019, from https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-
media/social-network-should-governments-moderate/
Dwoskin, E. (2019, January 26). YouTube is changing its algorithms to stop recommending
conspiracies. Retrieved February 15, 2019, from
https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-youtube-algorithms-conspiracies-20190125-
story.html
Matsakis, L. (2018, September 27). To Break a Hate-Speech Algorithm, Try 'Love'. Retrieved
from https://www.wired.com/story/break-hatespeech-algorithm-try-love/
Mill, J. S. (2016). Utilitarianism. In Seven masterpieces of philosophy (pp. 337-383). Routledge.
Mozur, P. (2018, October 15). A Genocide Incited on Facebook, With Posts From Myanmarʼs
Military. The New York Times. Retrieved February 15, 2019, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html
Prajuli, W. A. (2018, September 18). On social media, ISIS uses fantastical propaganda to recruit
members. Retrieved February 15, 2019, from http://theconversation.com/on-social-
media-isis-uses-fantastical-propaganda-to-recruit-members86626?

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