Freedom of speech in the new media 101

The invention of the Internet and more particularly of Web 2.0 has given a voice to every single one of its users. Consumers become creators, thus giving us all the right to express our thoughts and opinions on the matters discussed online. However, because anyone from anywhere in the world and thus with drastically different ways of thinking and doing can contribute to the online platform, a code of ethics is necessary in order to keep ideas and not insults flowing in the mainstream new media, that is, the Internet. This code of ethics is directed to all casual online users.

Responsibility as creators

• Impact: our content will be seen and read by many, some we know and others we don’t know. Whether directly or indirectly, it will have an impact on the way they think of the subject in question and what they think of us as individuals.
• Influence: just like we have impact on our consumers we have an influence on them. That is, our ideas and lifestyle can make them rethink their own and maybe later change them (influence) or they can make them drastically change theirs (impact).
• Name: our name is forever associated with our content. What we share stays online as long as can be and thus contributes to the image that we put up of ourselves on the platform. Therefore, we ought to stay aware of what we associate ourselves with.
• Reaction: our consumers can, and surely will, react to what we posted. It is thus our responsibility to accept being judged and accept the criticism that comes with it.
• Conclusion: whether we started the discussion or whether we hopped into it after stumbling on it, the simple act of getting involved gives us a responsibility as for where the conversation ends up going. This implies that we ought to make sure we get our point across, and that this might help deviate the discussion to where we want it to go.

Responsibility as consumers

• Intervention: the Internet is an open platform where anyone from anywhere can intervene in a discussion or hop on a bandwagon or share an idea or an information. A consumer of the Internet is also a creator, and in that manner, being a consumer of the Internet demands for us to give back by participating.
• Stepping up: when we come across something unethical online, as consumers, it is our responsibility to step up and make it right. Remaining silent in front of something that is clearly wrong, is just as bad as being the one behind the unethical act. “Bad things are what happen when good people do nothing.”
• Spend your time wisely: it is no secret that the Web is full of hogwash. Thus as consumers, we stumble on some of it every single time we use the platform. It is our responsibility to identify it and scroll through. Some people bring up controversies in order to get attention. Those are the ones we want to scroll away from. Those are the ones to ignore. Freedom of speech also means freedom of remaining silent when deemed more worthy than intervention.

Sticking to the truth

• Accuracy: solely use information found in trustworthy websites such as government and official brands/newspapers sites, and/or from verified sources such as professionals in a particular field or a person who has lived the events in question.
• Authenticity: do not try to impress the consumers in order to keep them interested. If they are reading/watching/listening to your content, then they already are. It is their choice anyway, and there isn’t much to do about it but stick to our authentic selves.
• Context: keep all information in its context. A phrase out of a text can take drastically different meanings for drastically different readers. A context is what will keep a significance set in stone.
• Yes to photoshopping images, only when done in the slightest amount: a lot of truth and meaning can be cropped out of a picture. Putting on filters don’t alter much of the understanding of an image, but whitening teeth, deleting acne, erasing a person or an object can be misleading.
• Social media should be a reproduction of our real lives, not our vision of the perfect life: perfect posts online can only lead our consumers to think that our lives are perfect, giving them an idea of us as perfect beings with little to no problems. As ridiculous as it sounds, little do we know about how others interpret our content and even less can we fathom the impact it has on them.
• The right words: words have more power than we might think they do. Two words might have very similar meanings, with a nuance, and that nuance can make a paragraph extremely accurate just like it can make it very much controversial.

Freedom of speech ≠ freedom to be a jerk

• Political correctness: we are to be mindful not only that we do have an impact and an influence on the people the are going to consume our content, but also of what impact and influence we have on them. It is very easy to offend someone online, whether because of an incorrect use of sarcasm or of a certain word that has a racist history.
• Bullying: online content shouldn’t belittle any person or type of person. Jokes aren’t humorous when they humiliate someone. As mentioned above, it is our responsibility as consumers to intervene whenever we come across a situation that is clearly wrong, and bullying is the perfect example of that. Freedom of speech gives us the freedom to express our ideas without fearing any backlash. However freedom of speech doesn’t give us the right to be mean or belittle another individual or group of individuals. This works both on and off-line.
• Silence: using freedom of speech as an excuse to criticize a minority or an individual is using it wrongly. “Freedom of speech” doesn’t mean “obligation to speak”. Whenever we don’t fathom a concept and are intently being rude in order to get our point across that we don’t understand it, the option of remaining silent is always open.