The Digital Revolution changed the world forever. It helped further the freedom of expression, which is “enshrined in Article 19 of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)” stating that, “this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (Panday). In a new digital age, authoritarian governments, as well as private organizations, are shutting down access to the Internet, or providing only partial access to the same to undermine political and social movements that may arise in certain parts of their nation. This is a form of repression of one’s freedom of speech and expression, which infringes upon one’s Human Rights.
The advent of the Internet has allowed everyone access to any sort of information, which also means that one may publish their opinions in a fast and unfiltered manner, on the various platforms available in the digital space, deviating largely from traditional media landscapes, which were heavily edited and monitored before going on air, being published, or broadcasted. Thus, a democratization of communication spaces was established. However, it is important to note that “the internet has no overarching jurisdiction and with no single entity governing the totality of the internet, there exists a jurisdictional vacuum over content on the web” (Panday). Hence, the content that is uploaded and posted on various platforms and websites, is largely governed by private enterprises and censorship, which has “resulted in a tendency to over-regulate speech” (Panday) that may hamper a particular institution’s political or capital agendas, which benefits from the spread of certain messages over the seemingly democratic internet space.
Scholars have highlighted a very interesting point: “Censorship is flourishing in the information age” (Bennett & Naim, 2015). This is a strange paradox, that in the day and age of unlimited data, governments and private institutions are heavily raining down upon its accessibility. Why is that so? As stated earlier, it is a means to control the masses and promote a certain ideology over others, in an attempt to control media spaces for one’s benefit. An example of the same may be countries that ban certain internet platforms, and on the contrary build their own State-monitored sites, which are controlled and under surveillance, ensuring that the media displayed does not go against their interests. This is a blatant disregard for one’s freedom of expression, and can ultimately lead to the death of democracy, and the birth of autocratic rule. Thus, “the internet’s promise of open access to independent and diverse sources of information is a reality mostly for the minority of humanity living in mature democracies” (Bennett & Naim, 2015).
However, one cannot undermine the power of disruption that the internet and the digital age has brought with it. The open-access format that the internet follows means that it is almost impossible to stop the free-flow of information. People will always find a way around “digital censorship” (Bennett & Naim, 2015) ensuring that the truth of all sides of a story makes it to the masses.
References
Bennett, P., & Naim, M. (2015, January 5). 21st-century censorship. Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/cover_story/21st_century_censorship.php
Jatmiko, M. I. (2024). Repression in the digital age: surveillance, censorship, and the dynamics of state violence: by Anita R. Gohdes, New York, Oxford University Press, 2024, 200 pp., ISBN 9780197772614. Information, Communication & Society, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2343813
Momen, Md. (2020). Freedom of expression in the Digital Age: Internet Censorship. 10.1007/978-3-319-74336-3_31-1.
Panday, J. (n.d.). Freedom of Expression in a Digital Age: Effective Research, Policy Formation & the Development of Regulatory Frameworks in South Asia. The Centre for Internet and Society. https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/freedom-of-expression-in-digital-age
Romaniuk, S. N., & Marton, P. (Eds.). (2023). The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies. Springer International Publishing.
Threats to freedom of press: Violence, disinformation & censorship. (n.d.). UNESCO. https://www.unesco.org/en/threats-freedom-press-violence-disinformation-censorship
Author: Ms. Pragya Dhiman
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