Does the Internet need controls or censorship? (Essay Sample)

Does the Internet need controls or censorship? Student’s First Name, Middle Initial(s), Last Name Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Instructor’s Name and Title Assignment Due Date Does the Internet need controls or censorship? The Internet has become a platform where individuals, private sectors, and governments wage social, political, and economic contests with the goal of regulating what people can access, post, or read online. Organizations, people, and governments can self-censor in fear of legal consequences, for business or moral reasons, and to meet societal norms. Opponents of internet censorship contend that the practice limits people’s ability to access information, potentially leading to limited access to knowledge and opportunities for personal growth. Advocates of internet censorship, on the contrary, put security over freedom, arguing that while freedom of speech is important, it must be protected from abuse. Although censuring the internet denies people the basic right of freedom of speech, internet control has worthy objectives of security concerns, limiting access to sensitive or harmful content and protecting copyrighted information. First, controlling information accessible online helps minimize cyber-attack threats and boost national security. Sensitive content, such as videos of military tactics and movements and information about proprietary economic data, can compromise a country’s security (Chen, 2020). Additionally, internet censorship protects the national economy and other factors that can influence a country’s position on the global market. Limiting online information can also reduce the threat of cybercrimes, particularly when the censorship is designed to thwart access to the tools and approaches used to in cyber-attacks. According to Chen (2020), many institutions implement filtering as a security strategy to protect themselves from malware and to safeguard their reputations in case their networks are used to commit cybercrime. Internet control enhances national security by preventing cybercrimes and related activities that can compromise a country’s rank on the global market. Secondly, internet censorship helps filter out topics and content that are considered antithetical to conventional societal norms. Specifically, censorship of content deemed inappropriate for children, such as violent videos and child pornography, enjoy widespread public support. Internet control provides a tool to regulate or block access to online information that can cause irreparable harm to children (Shishkina & Issaev, 2018). Online sites such as Facebook and Craigslist can give people access to sell and buy drugs, engage in human trafficking, and distribute child pornography (Shishkina & Issaev, 2018). Harmful information may also include false news, information on how to engage in identity theft, details about illegal activities, and hate speech. Censoring the internet is, therefore, good for the community at large as it protects children by restricting access to inappropriate content. Thirdly, internet censorship protects copyrighted information, safeguarding the rights of inventors, innovators, and artists. Such protections serve to defend the creation rights of the first content creators who pursued the ideas. According to Topornin et al. (2021), preventing IP theft and plagiarism gives nations the foundation of an economy. Suppose a work of art does not receive some level of protection. In that case, it can be reproduced or stolen by another individual who can recreate it more cost-effectively than the original creator (Topornin et al., 2021). Consequently, content owners are increasingly pushing for more powerful tools, including suspension of domain names and upload filtering, to protect their content from plagiar...