The Right to Blog - Recognizing Internet Freedom and Censorship

We often take for granted how much freedom the Internet gives us. When I express my charged opinions via blogging or other social media networks, I don’t often think of how lucky we are to be privileged with something like the First Amendment. Even if I did, it’s difficult for me to imagine what life would be like without it. However, this is the case, and with websites such as Youtube and google, and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook gaining strong footholds in countries other than our own, disparities begin to emerge. Our freedom to openly criticize political figures and publicly question our government is something unique. This is especially true during the current presidential race, where I’m sure you’re hard-pressed to find a blog or social media
post that doesn’t contain political undertones.

Yet, in other established countries around the world, the Internet is closely monitored and often censored by governments. Take the Chinese government who implements substantial political and religious filtering in order to quell public controversy. Or Iran who has proposed a national Internet, which would increase governmental control over individual Internet users(Rininsland theguardian). In fact, while the social media and blogging world of the US comes alive during political events such as the presidential race, the Chinese government actually increases Internet censorship. A recent article from Bloomberg Businessweek even shows how China is using internet filtering to cover up the increasing economic gap between rich and poor - Great Internet Firewall of China.

The point I’m getting at is how lucky we are to have a First Amendment in the internet
age. Since we do have it – take advantage of it. Post controversial material, push your opinion
onto others and instigate anarchist internet behavior. There are too many Internet users who
are inhibited already. It’s not fair to them to tiptoe around when we have the ability to criticize
prominent political figures without the fear of being thrown in jail. The best way to show how
much we value our online freedom is to use it.

Robert Ankeny
University of Minnesota
Jour 3279
Blog Assignment