Media & Limits To Free Speech in the 21st Century
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The document discusses limits to free speech in the 21st century media landscape. It covers how digital communication has transitioned from a one-to-many system to many-to-many. It also examines issues like technical censorship, propaganda and surveillance, criminal and civil lawsuits regarding online content, the role of intermediaries and algorithms, terrorism, public shaming, and whether access to the internet and freedom of expression should be considered basic human rights. It includes a quote noting that technology amplifies inherent human traits rather than creating new problems.
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Media & Limits To Free Speech in the 21st Century
- 1. Media & limits to free speech in the 21st century Marie K. Shanahan April 6, 2015 @mariekshan
- 2. Thanks to the Internet, digital communication is Image credit: veryabledesign.blogspot.com
- 3. Old system: One to many
- 4. Now it is a system of many to many
- 6. Free Expression Online Does ‘speech’ act differently if it is archived and searchable?
- 8. Technical censorship: Site blocking, content filtering
- 14. Criminal and/or Civil Lawsuits
- 19. Public Shaming
- 20. Should access to the Internet be considered a basic human right? ... Should freedom of expression be guaranteed on the Internet?
- 21. "Technology isn’t the problem here. It is people’s inherent character traits. The Internet and search engines just enable people to be more of what they already are." - Andy Oram, quoted in Future of The Internet IV, Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2010
- 22. by Gwendal Le Bec
Editor's Notes
- In today’s information climate most of us have constant connection. The Internet is an unrivaled forum for discussion and debate, and people around the world use the World Wide Web to share information.
- Old system of information delivery was slow and controlled by traditional media. If you wanted to reach a large audience, you had to go through newspaper, radio and/or TV. And even then, wouldn’t reach a global audience. Just as far as delivery trucks and broadcast signal would travel. But now, with explosive growth of social media, how far and fast information/misinformation and opinions can spread online.
- New computer mediated communication media has created “millions of new authors.” Peer-to-peer networks and social media. There is really more speech than ever before.
- Online speech has the potential to be GLOBAL because of platforms / intermediaries like Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and Google. More speech than ever, in theory, could mean more democratic engagement. We can share our opinions, our artwork, our music, document our lives.
- However, the digital communication picture isn’t all rosy. There are deterrents to free expression in the online space. Standards for acceptable speech vary in each country, each culture, each religion. World gets more global, distance between us shorter, causes conflict. Speech that is acceptable in the US not ok in the UK or in India or the Philippines or in China. But technology can extend beyond the border of that country. Internet is vast space all its own and considered the wild west for long time. Governments exerting controls and pressures to make the web less free, because people left to their own devices use it for bad behavior, or expression that the majority doesn’t like. In many ways, decentralized networks have made it harder for oppressive governments to control online speech. Because information comes from so many places and being published by so many. We aren’t just a culture of consumers, but creators. Tools to document and share information about our lives, our opinions. But in spite of all the promise of technology and the world wide web, there are forces today that impact freedom of expression. Technical censorship methods that are unique to the Internet, such as site blocking and content filtering. Oppressive government use technological solutions to block access to sites. Twitter, YouTube, Google, has been blocked in various countries due to unrest. Also use technology to surveillance of citizens whose opinions they don’t like and target those people, silence them. Government can put pressure on third party sites to restrict access to content, based on your location.
- This post from August 2014, blew up big 6-8 months later. Classes were cancelled.
- Most prominent deterrent to free expression on world wide web world is technical censorship. motives or rationales for Internet filtering: politics and power, social norms and morals, and security concerns. Can we employ technology - smart algorithms - to eliminate unlawful speech? For example, YikYak app causing all kinds of problems on college campuses. How would you feel if UConn set up its wi-fi where you couldn’t access YikYak anymore. But then it trickles down. Next you can’t access Twitter or Facebook or SnapChat or Instagram? Ban the platform, stifle the speech?
- March 2014
- March 2015
- Governments can apply pressure on intermediaries to remove content.
- Sophisticated authoritarian regimes can use the web not just for propaganda purposes but to track their opposition. Governments can track and punish journalists.
- Private "intermediaries" like Twitter, Google and Facebook now control much of what information/expression people can access and share. If one of these Internet giants decides to change an algorithm (or are pressured by governments to do so), certain information may never surface.
- Public shaming? Problem happened here at UConn. A female student published an open letter to Pres. Susan Herbst about new husky logo and how it resembled a rape meme Lesson there Shaming can deter free expression. Afraid to participate. Can there be any expression without attention? 2013 - Michigan woman sparked online rage when she dressed for Halloween as a Boston Marathon bombing victim Senior director of corporate communications Justine Sacco – 170 Twitter followers, flight to cape town, bad joke about Africa and AIDS. Gawker brought it to the attention of hordes of online strangers. Obsuriity online is not guaranteed. If you post publicly, assume it is like a billboard on the highway. Your tweet lives on forever.
- Does your answer to these questions change if I remind you that villains can use digital technology for expression just as much as victims. YouTube videos of beheadings / ISIS recruitment tool
- Humans are subversive. Technologically savvy users can often find ways to access blocked content. Is any type of moderation = censorship?