Censorship and Social Media
If a singular scene was to be put to the word “censorship” it would be a scene which included a 10 foot tower of books that were engulfed in flames. In many ways, the censorship that is being dealt with today is similar to the book-burning days of the past, but it is also drastically changing everyday. By definition, censorship is the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are "offensive," and happens whenever some people succeed in imposing their personal, political or moral values on others. Censorship can be carried out by the government as well as private pressure groups. Censorship by the government is unconstitutional. In contrast, when private individuals or groups organize boycotts against stores that sell magazines of which they disapprove, their actions are protected by the First Amendment, although they can become dangerous in the extreme. Private pressure groups, not the government, promulgated and enforced the infamous Hollywood blacklists during the McCarthy period. But these private censorship campaigns are best countered by groups and individuals speaking out and organizing in defense of the threatened expression.
Today, much of the censorship debate is centered around social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook/Meta and what they chose to promote or hide. In recent news, Russia has begun to partially limit the access its citizens have to Facebook, accusing it of "censoring" Russian media. “The [Russian]state communications regulator said Facebook had ignored its demands to lift restrictions on four Russian media outlets on its platform - RIA news agency, the Defense Ministry's Zvezda TV, and websites gazeta.ru and lenta.ru.” (Reuters). In response to this, Meta's head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said in a statement on Twitter: "Yesterday, Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labeling of content posted to Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations. We refused. As a result, they have announced they will be restricting the use of our services (Reuters)." This is just another news relevant example of how the big American social Media companies have an incredible amount of power when it comes to influencing both foreign governments and its own citizens. Google said it has removed hundreds of YouTube channels and thousands of videos over the last few days for violating its policies and was continuing to look for and disrupt disinformation campaigns and hacking. Twitter Inc also put out a statement that said users in Russia and Ukraine would no longer see ads, as a way to avoid distracting from public safety messages. They also stated that users will no longer see recommended tweets from accounts they do not follow, to try to put a limit on the spread of abusive content. Last year Moscow slowed down the speed of Twitter.
While censorship is a very pressing topic when a nation's security and the safety of millions is at stake, there is still another form of censorship that deserves attention. Cancel culture is a very real thing in America. Cancel culture, as defined by Dictionary.com, is “the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive.” Celebrities or prominent figures in the public eye can be “canceled” for a plethora of reasons. These reasons can vary from political opinion, past actions that can be deemed “inappropriate” or even flat-out criminal and predatory behavior. For example, some celebrities have gotten canceled for wearing a shirt with a confederate flag on it 15 years ago, while others get canceled when dozens of stories come out that they sexually abused dozens of women. Internet culture reporter, Aja Romano has an excellent explanation of the topic, “To many people, this process of publicly calling for accountability, and boycotting if nothing else seems to work, has become an important tool of social justice a way of combating, through collective action, some of the huge power imbalances that often exist between public figures with far-reaching platforms and audiences, and the people and communities their words and actions may harm (Freedom Forum).” That being said, censorship and cancel culture have become integral to the structure of today’s society for better or worse. Many people are scared to express themselves out of fear of getting canceled and therefore censor themselves as a result. The 1st amendment is supposed to protect Americans and provide the ability to express their opinions and beliefs, but today some believe that your opinion, if not aligning with the flimsy moral fiber of the internet, may need to be censored.
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