Jessica Gott

How is the censorship in Fahrenheit 451 different from the cyberspace censorship addressed by
MacKinnon?

Censorship is portrayed different in both of these sources because in Fahrenheit 451

society is being carelessly censored by the government, but in today's society with cyberspace
only certain things will get censored whether right or wrong. MacKinnon focuses on things that
are controversial like when Apple “censors the Dalai lama app along with several other
politically sensitive applications” (MacKinnon, time stamp 1:17). This touches the subject on
how at the click of a button companies can cut off interactions with certain subjects. This
specifically touched on the censorship companies put towards topics that could be a problem
for them because of its controversy. In fahrenheit 451 though it isn’t just specific topics, but
everything written on paper being censored. The book says, “Remember, the firemen are rarely
necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord.” (Bradbury, 87). This in itself
shows how people of power deceive the public into thinking they think things up on their own.
By burning away all the books people started to think they just didn’t need them anymore, but
this is only the straight effect of censorship. Both sources get across a good point of upper
powers abusing control of censorship because they censor society from things they aren’t even
scared of.