Censorship in Social Media

Censorship in general, not just on social media platforms, is a difficult topic. It raises many questions about what freedoms we have as American citizens. Obviously, our First Amendment rights protect our ability to speak freely from the government. But what about on public platforms? Who gets to decide when words and images become something dangerous?

I personally am against most forms of censorship. I believe that any idea that can be put into words or pictures deserves to be seen. However, there do need to be some limitations when it comes to social media.

Cyber-bullying can be an issue on social platforms. For example, the idea that someone could go to a random teenager’s social media profile and tell them to kill themselves is disgusting and dangerous. There are many similar examples of this concerning hate speech and bigotry. One of the many problems with social media is that it allows people to speak without consequence. Online anonymity gives a voice to the vulgar thoughts of hateful individuals.

I personally think that the decision of what should be censored on social media should be left to individual users. Everyone has different ideas of what is considered acceptable to see online. One person could be bothered by nudity and not care about seeing violent images. Someone else could be bothered by hate speech but not care about nudity. There will never be a perfect system of judging what is appropriate because it is entirely subjective. Instead, when individuals are setting up an account on a certain platform, they should be able to choose what content they do not want to see on their feeds. Just like setting a bio or a profile picture, they can decide what is too much for them. Images or words that they consider disturbing can either not be shown at all, or can be covered and have the option to be viewed.