The Internet: A Soapbox Free For All. The internet is an incredible tool to have in this modern age, anything from reconnecting with old friends, communicating with others around the world, discovering new things and the ability to search anything at any time all at a click of a button. The internet also provides many ways to express peoples opinion, however, the power of free speech comes at a cost as it has been a controversial issue for decades. The issue of which if some opinions shouldn’t remain openly shared. Should online hate speech become censored completely, have restrictions, or is it protected by the right of free speech? The use of anonymity can ensure protection of free speech in some situations as said by Marcel Rosenbach and
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In Loria’s piece, “Should Social Media Censor Content?” he explains the difference between violating terms of service and censorship, the example he uses is YouTube’s terms of service. A user must agree to not post copyrighted material and follow community guidelines, failure to do so may result in the content removal and the account deleted (Loria). However, some content may become removed or censored because of certain believes or opinions, as Loria writes; “, the pastor of a Baptist church in Georgia has his video banned from YouTube after he posted his Sunday sermon about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. His entire account was terminated… the site mistakenly believed (it) to be ‘hate speech’” (Loria). YouTube’s terms of service do not state anything about prohibiting religious speeches, so this had been in some way a form of censorship. Comparing this incident to the concept of anonymity and its clear why some users prefer it. An anonymous user can post actual hate speech and get away with it, if their account is deleted they simply create a new one under a different name, the pastor however may have to create a new email address just to make a new account for content that didn’t even violate the terms of
In Loria’s piece, “Should Social Media Censor Content?” he explains the difference between violating terms of service and censorship, the example he uses is YouTube’s terms of service. A user must agree to not post copyrighted material and follow community guidelines, failure to do so may result in the content removal and the account deleted (Loria). However, some content may become removed or censored because of certain believes or opinions, as Loria writes; “, the pastor of a Baptist church in Georgia has his video banned from YouTube after he posted his Sunday sermon about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. His entire account was terminated… the site mistakenly believed (it) to be ‘hate speech’” (Loria). YouTube’s terms of service do not state anything about prohibiting religious speeches, so this had been in some way a form of censorship. Comparing this incident to the concept of anonymity and its clear why some users prefer it. An anonymous user can post actual hate speech and get away with it, if their account is deleted they simply create a new one under a different name, the pastor however may have to create a new email address just to make a new account for content that didn’t even violate the terms of