Is Censorship of the Internet Necessary?

Censorship is, by definition, the suppression or prohibition of any part(s) of speech, public
communication, and/or any other means of information. Censorship can be made by
government and/or private institutions, etc. on the basis that the content or material is harmful,
sensitive, or “inconvenient”. Censorship can occur in a large variety of different media from
speech to books, music, films and other arts, the press, television, the Internet and more for
many reasons such as national security, protecting (an) ethnic group(s) or other vulnerable
groups such as children, to control hate speech, or to promote or restrict political or religious
views. Censorship of the Internet -just like censorship in general- is a topic of which many have
differing opinions on. There are many that believe censorship of the Internet is very much
necessary and definitely needed. There are also lots that are highly against it believing they
should be able to view whatever they want.

Well, access to information is a fundamental human right and freedom of speech is a

fundamental human right. The Internet is a world-wide platform of mass communication and a
place where billions across the whole globe can reach information. Censoring information and
censoring any other publication is against these human rights. The information we access, the
media we consume should not be filtered out -nor blocked- by the government or any other
organization, but by us ourselves. Censorship does not “protect” but, it instead merely hides…
and this can do us no good. We ourselves should be able to decide what we want to see and
what we don’t, without interference from a third party group.

Of course, here comes the issue of the children that have access to the Internet. Should
whatever they can access also be unfiltered? They can’t filter what they are shown themselves
so, do they need censorship? Censorship for children is a necessity, yes, but in spite of this, the
censorship of what children may access should be the responsibility of their parents and/or
guardian and no others. What these children should or shouldn’t be able to reach on the Internet
should only be in the hands of these responsible people. Therefore, censorship conducted by a
different third party is yet again unnecessary.

Censorship of the Internet can only result in unnecessary and unwanted limitations of freedom.
Fact-checking of information may be quite reasonable yet, removing information from the
Internet will make that source [the source that removed/deleted the mentioned information]
unreliable because we can not be sure what they have or haven’t censored, erased. Above this,
censorship can easily be misused and take away creative freedom especially on a platform
where so much creative media is published, the Internet. The freedom of speech and right to
access information is above all in this case and can not be compromised. What is “inconvenient”
should not be decided by the government or other private organizations but only by the users
themselves and the publishers on the Internet should be free to publish.

Yüşa Erenci 11A