This week I wanted to take a break on all the censorship talk and instead talk about what has been happening in the news lately. As you all may have heard, the United States recently bombed an airfield in Syria, one that was under control of President Bashar Al-Assad. This was in reaction to a recent chemical attack on a city nearby the airfield. There are people from both the left and right criticizing and praising president Trumps attack. I don’t know what the right answer is, but I can see where both sides are coming from. I believe that a big factor to this dilemma is establishing whether it was Al-Assad who bombed the city or if it was indeed the rebels as some are claiming. However that is neither here nor there, what I found interesting was that the United States warned Russia ahead of time, before the bombing. It’s pretty obvious that this was done in order to minimize the backlash that could have been from Russia, but I am curious if this also had something to do with the “Rules of War”. For some reason, governments around the war have collectively come together and decided that there are some acts so heinous that they must not be outlawed. This idea has good intent behind it and if everybody was as nice as they claim to be then maybe it would work. However, in my honest opinion I seriously doubt any organization follows these rules, at least not when the world isn't watching. Should countries really be constrained against an enemy that is holding nothing back from them? I don’t know, but let me know what you guys think in the comments.
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These last couple of days I have been diving deeper into my research topic, censorship. I have began focusing more and more on government censorship, specifically media and browser censorships. The key suspects in the most guilty of these “crimes” is easily China. China is one of the most oppressive first world governments in today's era. They police social media sites and even news sites vigorously. In fact, China actively censors social media posts that do not fall inline with government views. This includes political issues as well as religious ones like the Dalai Lama. I find it hard to believe a country as oppressive as China can continue being a first world power without daily revolts. According to researcher Gary King, “Contrary to previous understandings, posts with negative, even vitriolic, criticism of the state, its leaders, and its policies are not more likely to be censored. Instead, we show that the censorship program is aimed at curtailing collective action by silencing comments that represent, reinforce, or spur social mobilization, regardless of content.”. Basically the censorship they do for social media sites is mostly aimed at stopping any kind of protest, or revolt/revolution. Besides censoring social posts, they also censor what you can and can't search for on the web. Unless you have a VPN or something similar, citizens of China will not come up with any search for websites that the government deems “dangerous”. For example you cannot use Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube. News is also censored and and only pro Chinese government propaganda is allowed to be printed or posted. This should raise a red flag for any Chinese citizen (as if the last couple of examples weren’t enough), censoring the news gives governments huge control over their citizens and allows them to practically brainwash most of the population, in my opinion. It isn't only China however, the United States and Great Britain’s governments also use censorship, although not to the extremes of China. The United States does not censor their citizens’ opinions, it would go against the first amendment, however they do have laws that restrict graphic content or offensive content. Like with all things there should be a healthy amount of censorship in any government, but there is always a thin line and we should stay aware and make sure not to cross it.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/how-censorship-in-china-allows-government-criticism-but-silences-collective-expression/C7EF4A9C9D59425C2D09D83742C1FE00 |
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May 2017
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