Banning Social Media
Our world revolves heavily around social media. It connects us to the people around us, and to other people across the world. While it may have changed the game in terms of communication, it has also brought in many problems. An example of these problems is a situation in Indonesia, where the government was forced to restrict usage of social media apps like: Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. The reason for this was because of the spread of hoaxes, and misleading information through social media. This lead to riots which then lead to the death of six people, and left over 200 people injured.The restrictions set only limited the pictures and videos they could post. There would be a delay for each post to confirm that they are not spreading any misleading information that could entice the riots. The tensions are high, and they are making sure that nobody else gets hurt. They did not fully restrict the social media applications because citizens still need to communicate with their loved ones in Indonesia and outside of it too.
This is not the first time a country has done something like this. Back in April, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Youtube were all banned in Sri Lanka for days for the same reason. They did not want false information flooding through social media after two hundred people were killed from bombings on Easter Sunday. The ban has been lifted since, but it was definitely not as restrictive as possible.
In both situations, people were able to bypass the bans through the use of VPNs. These VPNs are easily accessible through the phone app stores and can be downloaded for free by anybody. If similar situations were to ever occur again, knock on wood, the countries might want to find a way to restrict these apps without people bypassing them through VPNs. While people did find a way through, the plans worked out successfully. In both situations, the nations got what they wanted, and both restrictions have been lifted.
From what I know about the situation, I agree with what the government did. They wanted to take precautions to prevent the riots from worsening. They made sure to not affect communication through social media and the ban was for a short period of time.
I agree with you Janssen about the government banning social media. Even though many people use social media as a way to mislead people, there are some very informative things that can be posted by people. For example, the awareness of climate change is becoming popular throughout all platforms of social media. There are also some videos exposing police officers for their brutality against a specific race. Social media can be a way to shine a light on the darkness but the problem is that many people misuse the advantages of social media. I believe that the government should be able to monitor what we post online for others to see and if it violates their rules, they can remove the post.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the government banning social media in some cases. I believe that even though people can misuse social media in ways like fake news and cyberbullying, social media can still produce a whole lot of credible information and is a good way to communicate with other. It's a way that people around the world can communicate with each other, share their beliefs, spread awareness about causes, share information, and talk about things that either upset them or make them happy. I believe that it's okay for companies and the government to lightly monitor social media without impeding upon free speech, but if a certain post or comment violates the terms of service they can be terminated.
ReplyDeleteI've got to say that I agree with you Jansenn. The government banning social media would result in problems like fake news and the manipulation of people via social media, being virtually extinct. There is one problem with this though, our North American society has become so reliant on social media, that I'm sure our governments could never get away with the banning of social media, even if it were for our own good. And I'm sure I, as well as many of my peers would find it irritating if social media was banned in our region.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about governments banning social media. As a result of how easy it can be for people or organizations to spread false information, it may be necessary for them to temporarily ban these sites/medias to lower its spread in its community and as well as the world. Yes, people should be able to voice their opinions but they shouldn't misuse it to create havoc. The governments that you used as examples may have needed to do this to decrease the amount of damage that the false information may have caused. Although its citizens may use VPNs to bypass these bans, it should in some way at least reduce the amount of false information being spread around.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said, Janssen. The government banning social media may solve some problems, but it will create more. These days, there are billions upon billions of people on social media, this would make it extremely difficult to censor anything. I believe that if our government were to ban or restrict certain social media apps, there would be outrage and most likely similar events to which occurred in Indonesia would also occur here also.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Janssen. The government banning social media might solve problems but also in the same way can create more. Since there are billions of people on social media daily, and also due to the VPN thing that you mentioned, it would be almost impossible even with the banning of social media. Also to add on top of it, if the government did ban or restrained social media apps, there would be a vicious out-roar of this event on a higher scale compared to the one in Indonesia.
ReplyDeleteMiguel Enrique Quiban