Internet Censorship: The Negative Effects Of Access To The Internet

According to Noam Chomsky (as cited in Mackintosh, 2002), an American political writer and institute professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “The internet could be a very positive step towards education, organisation and participation in a meaningful society.” His speech represents that the Internet has played numerous roles in every community. It provides education, corporation, and cooperation, thus everyone should be able to access to the Internet and use it freely. However, some people disagree and claim that access to the Internet has negative effects. Many countries’ governments have generated the Internet censorship that is supposed to protect their nationality and country. These countries’ actions however

The idea of the Internet was invented since the 1960s, but it is still being developed today (Internet Society, 2014). The Internet is a worldwide computer networks that not only allows computer users to transfer digital information, but also be able to receive the data at the same time (“Internet,” 2014). Presently, not only computers, but also other devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and video-game consoles, can now connect to the Internet. Moreover, the number of people accessing the Internet has rapidly grown. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) (2011), more than 2 million people have access to the Internet by March 2011. This number of the Internet users is over a third of the world’s population. It shows the important reliance of the Internet to our society. In addition, the number of people who access the Internet rapidly rises every year. As a result, according to Barney Warf (2010), a professor in the Geography department at the University of Kansas, the widely expanded use of Internet access has been controlled and limited by the government in several regions according to politics, religion, security, lese-majesty, and

It is guaranteed by article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation.” Prohibiting people from these rights is a brutal regulation, because the Internet provides effective ways of communication and connection. People who live far away from each other can use Skype as a free tool to keep in contact with their family and friends via face-to-face video call. Furthermore, people can update their lives and ideas through social networking websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, thus allowing family and friends to know how you are doing. Nonetheless, some communication mediums are not allowed in some countries. For instance, China has created the Great Firewall of China to limit the Internet access in China. Facebook is one of these social networking websites that had been banned in China since 2009, because of national security risks (“Internet,” 2014). In Iran, due to the fear of an opposition movement that targets their nation’s politics, both Twitter and Facebook are completely prohibited (Kirkland, 2014). Although, these countries justify their reasons for their Internet censorship with the aim to protect their nationality, it generates an inequitable right that all humans are supposed to receive. Imagine that if you need to work in another