Censorship on YouTube

Ashley Bursey in “YouTube censorship no laughing matter” discusses everything could be watched through the Internet, such as news clips, and short videos. Nevertheless, the Chinese government blocked and restricted people from approaching these videos because they might include demonstrations and revolts. People could only watch videos that were checked by a censor on YouTube. A human rights problem might come out, and people could decide whether they want to see something even though it is a bad video. YouTube provides videos to satisfy people. Also, people have rights to share with other people or refuse to watch them.

Censorship is an inescapable issue in the Internet world. It may depend on politics, culture, and morality.

For political parts, in communist countries, they may censor their websites seriously due to peace reason. In order to avoid rebellion, the governments in communist countries may control some sensitive or secret information. This control may cause controversy in human rights because people can’t get information freely. People have rights to get what they want to watch. On the other hand, it is a way to prevent and fight riots. China is this type of country that the government blocks the site to keep people away from inappropriate information.

Culture is another issue to censor the site. Different countries have different cultures, especially religion. Religion is very respectable in some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Thailand. If the video insulted to their religion, it might cause another controversy in the world. We should not joke with other religions.

People should have responsibility for the videos that they upload. Morality is the important aspect of censorship, because in most countries people are free to upload or watch all videos. So, morality is important not only for censors but also for people who upload the videos. The videos might be not allowed or deleted if they contained too much violence or sex. These videos might influence our society or even the world. When people upload videos, they must consider whether the videos will affect or harm other people.

YouTube is a free website that allows people to upload and share videos freely but not all videos are allowed to be shown on the Internet. It depends on politics, culture, and morality. People should have their own ethic or responsibility when they publish the videos.

Reference:

Bursey, A. (2008, March 22). YouTube censorship no laughing matter. TelegraphJournal. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/magazine/article/246083#

Controversy in Information Technology

Jo Twist in “Controversy blights UN net summit” discusses the fact that the technology gap between rich and poor nations was narrowed but finance was not enough currently. The documents repeated the pledge that was finished at a first summit in Geneva two years earlier to help poorer countries do well with information and communication technologies. Also, the Tunisian government did not live up to its promise on its pledge for freedom of expression. Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, said Freedom is required for an information society in the Internet. There were many discussions to deal with the issue but there were no actual international standards.

We have already arrived in the technology world, but there are a lot of poor countries that do not have integrated technologies. Sharing information and censorship are also controversial in cyberspace. These are important issues nowadays. Thus, information and communication technologies should be cared about.

Many poorer countries do not have integrated technologies. Finance may be a problem to them. Poor countries do not have enough funding to purchase or develop their information system. They may need support from other rich countries. Another issue that narrows their development in technology is their government. The governments control and restrict everything about their information system so they can’t develop their technologies. Thus, technologies and knowledge should be developed in poor countries.

Sharing information is the other controversial problem in cyberspace. People feel that they do not have freedom in an information society. They do not allow sharing their information freely. Some governments may be afraid that criminal issues will happen through cyberspace. In order to avoid a security problem, governments may try to control the freedom in cyberspace. If governments can solve this problem, Internet may be a good bridge to let people connect and share information with other people around the global.

Censorship is another controversial problem in cyberspace. This is the hardest one to perform in the Internet because there are no standard rules to execute this part. Different countries have different standards. Thus, governments should build powerful censorship a tools to examine websites to avoid the criminal action in the Internet.

We are now in the information technology age. Information system is important for everyone, not only for rich countries but also for poor countries. So, we should help poor countries to build an integrated technology. Also, sharing information and censorship are important topics nowadays. Thus, everyone can have freedom to get or share information.

Reference:

Twist, J. (2005, November 18). Controversy blights UN net summit. BBC NEWS. Retrieved March 19, 2008, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4450474.stm