Hate speech in Digital Media
The content and question we decided to choose was “Free Speech, Hate Speech and Censorship: How are digital technologies influencing people’s understanding of free speech, hate speech, and censorship?” because we think it’s something that society deals with on a day to day basis. To start we will give some background on free speech, hate speech, and censorship so there isn’t any confusion. In some cases people tend to confuse hate speech for free speech which can cause problems in public. Free speech is defined as “the right to express any opinions without censorship or restraint” which is basically saying people have the right to say what they believe in or their opinion whether it’s political, opinionated, or expressive. Citizens are protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution to speak freely about what they believe in. Hate speech refers to when an individual may attack, discriminate, or demean with their words. Hate speech is meant to get a reaction or even cause violence between others. Censorship is the regulation or prohibition of anything that is put out to the public whether it’s a book, movie, or even a post on social media. Digital companies will regulate people post to make sure they are following the
With digital technologies at hand everywhere we go there are limitations to free speech and hate speech online. For example, private companies don’t need to follow the constitution because they created a company, therefore their own set of guidelines and restrictions. One example of this was during 2021 when Trump supporters decided to storm the Capitol Building. After the storm Donald Trump took to twitter to tweet about the event. In a New York Times article I found titled Twitter Permanently Bans Trump, Capping Online Revolt written by Kate Conger and Mike Isaac it was quoted his “tweets were highly likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021” said Twitter after banning him from the platform. This caused an uproar with Trump supporters saying it’s unconstitutional for Twitter to ban him for saying what he wants. These people don’t realize that Twitter isn’t run by the United States, it’s a privately owned company. With that being said when you create an account you agree to specific guidelines that you have to follow or you risk your account being terminated. In Donald Trump’s case he was going against their terms and conditions by inciting violence and due to that he was permanently banned. This is considered to be hate speech so this is a great example of how people understand freedom of speech as well as hate speech. Our own president didn’t know the difference and basically caused a divide in our nation.
Another major section in which was reviewed was the case of censorship and a huge example of this was the covid information and the amount of false news which was being spread over that time. We found the definition of censorship to be anything to be prohibited whether it be false information or a controversial opinion. The covid examples played a huge part in censorship when it came to digital media and how people were receiving our news. We used multiple examples during the podcast of people we personally know who would go off the rails about covid and express their opinions even though it could sometimes come off as false information. This is where censorship comes into play a part to protect the viewers of information which can be deceiving and harm the audience.
The Power of two really played a part in this project as we are both close friends and it was very easy to bounce ideas off of each other and also give different perspectives. It is very helpful to have multiple sides to really understand the information and bring in different examples. I have always enjoyed working in pairs as it can bring way more information out rather than just one person. The project was also very enjoyable as I have always wanted to film a podcast on a subject that didn’t have anything to do with sports or entertainment but real life events. It is very important to address these issues as it is very difficult for people such as the younger population to understand what is right and what is wrong when multiple opinions are being thrown. Overall this was a fantastic project and really made us be involved with situations we enjoy such as making a podcast, and could possibly continue this in the future.
How are digital technologies influencing people’s understanding of free speech, hate speech, and censorship?
Digital technologies are a huge part of today’s society whether it’s for entertainment, education, and even communication.
“were highly likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” nyt Kate conger and Mike Isaac
“https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/technology/capitol-twitter-facebook-trump.html
They describe how fake news about the virus developed on social media and acknowledge the initially muted response by the scientific community to counteract misinformation. National Library of Medicine
