Censorship and Freedom of Speech over the Internet

While most people in the world agree that the internet is a useful tool in society for various reasons, many also believe that the freedom the public have over the internet is dangerous and should be censored. With that, a question is asked: How do different countries approach censorship and freedom of speech over the internet? In this paper I will discuss that the freedom of speech and the easy ability to access information from the internet has been around for years, but now censorship and the freedom of speech over cyber space are newly debated as a problem. Previously, the internet was used as a communication tool but because of more technological advancements, the internet developed into a cyber world. There are no laws against the freedom of speech over the media and as a result of that, secret government information has been leaked leading to riots. . In order to explore this issue and help readers understand the discussion that follows this issue, I will support my thesis using two central claims: the censorship of cyber in certain countries, and the age-old notion of freedom of speech. To support my first claim, I assess research and claims presented in Ian Brown’s ”Internet Filtering – Be Careful What You Ask For” and additional information about various censored countries. To support my second claim, I explore the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Countries that implore censorship on their internet, blocking access to information sharing and receiving outside of their borders, implies that those countries are afraid of information getting leaked to the public.