In terms of online censorship, it is hard to say if it is good or bad. This is because online censorship can have benefits and drawbacks in many people’s eyes. For example if you are a parent with young kids, or even teenagers, they might censor some of the television that they watch, or require certain apps to have approval before downloading it.
Parents believe that this is something that is beneficial because it is protecting their children from harmful content or even violent and explicit content. Online censorship can also protect the spreading of misinformation that can be false and cause harm to others. Along with this it can prevent cyberbullying, and hate speech, and the government sometimes censors content that could threaten the nation. These are just some reasons as for people that see why online censorship can be good, but it can be really bad as well.
Online censorship can be bad because it threatens free speech. For example, it can be used to suppress people’s political views, and limit alternative views. With the app Tiktok, the whole app being banned, raised a lot of conversation about censorship. When it came back, many things that I saw on it were political and a lot of the posts I usually saw were censored.
Along with this, it can limit access to certain kinds of information. When things online are taken away, or limited, people might not get specific information that they are supposed to be able to see and read.
Restricting content can be a slippery slope, because once censorship is in place, it can limit the access to people having open discussions about things. It can also limit research, especially if what you are researching is being censored. I think the impact of censorship can be good or bad depending on how it is done, and if the reason is valid or not. I personally believe that online censorship is bad, simply because it has more negative effects than good ones. It can be ineffective and threaten free speech.
