Yes! it is time for regulation of the internet.
Is it time for regulation of the internet? This is a question that is being hotly debated recently. With the rapid development of science and technology, the Internet has become an indispensable part of people’s life. While people are dependence on the Internet are increasing, it also brings many disadvantages to our life. We are no longer trust Facebook for fear that its frequent use could reveal our privacy, or even that our personal data could become a tool for politicians to manipulate elected officials.We no longer enter personal information on the Internet at will, for fear of being monitored at any time. More and more people are beginning to think about whether we should strengthen the network regulations mechanism, so that people can have a better safe and “clean” environment to use the Internet.
Opponents claim that it would usher in a utopian world where the powerless would be on an equal footing with powerful. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckreberg said: this is not a Facebook job has to worry about misleading political ads, he believes that political advertising is more transparent on Facebook than anywhere else and theses political ads are an essential form of free speech. Some even cite the industrial revolution as an example. Think that during the industrial revolution, big business was also largely unregulated and took advantage of laissez-faire environment to pollute, to pay low wages and compel people to work long hours, and to use its monopoly control to squeeze suppliers and gouge customers.
But times are advancing, and history cannot be reversed. Sometimes history repeats itself as time goes back. Now that the abuses of the industrial revolution are well known, we cannot allow such mistakes to continue in the Internet age. Every absolute freedom comes at a price. In the Internet era that advocates freedom of speech, fake news and Internet violence also cause great harm to the public. Facebook became the breeding ground for fake news entirely by its accidental mixing of a gigantic daily audience of billion people. From encrypted apps used by terrorists to online abuse, and fake news to hacking and radicalization, the friction between the two side is growing. Moreover, France and Germany have implemented fines for companies that allow Nazi content to remain online. And the European commission’s decision to fine Google $2.4bn for favoring its own shopping service suggest that some problems, at least, are seen as the province of legislators.
These examples fully prove that while the Internet maximizes freedom of speech, it should also have a moral standard to regulate the Internet environment. Freedom without restriction will not only bring many harms and disadvantages to the Internet world, but also violate the real meaning of freedom of speech itself.
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