When it comes to tackling internet issues such as “fake news”, Angela Cibils argues that the solution is to teach people how to think critically, to evaluate facts and opinions, and to check the reliability of the sources being used.
The internet has become a crucial element in our everyday lives. It has enabled us to communicate and break physical barriers, to connect with people from all over the globe, and to absorb knowledge from the virtually endless chasm of information. However, whether the internet should be the free and chaotic space it was meant to be, or whether it should have more supervision is still a debated issue. The advantages and drawbacks of a free internet will be discussed here, and one will be able to see why internet freedom is better than internet control.
One of the most important benefits the internet has brought to the table is granting us the ability to freely express our opinions and points of view. It has given us a space to express ourselves in our running-out-of-space world. The internet and different social media serve as a platform to put our thoughts into words, to “say” what we think, and for others to respond to those perspectives. As is stated in a Guardian article, “internet access is inseparable from freedom of expression.” Because of this, it is extremely important to protect internet freedom, otherwise it would mean taking a human right away.
However, with this internet freedom there comes a cost. Nearly 2 billion data records were either lost or stolen due to cyberattacks, and that was just in the first six months of 2017. That is more than a 150% increase compared to 2016 (according to a CNBC article). Governments are constantly increasing their control over the internet usage in the name of national security, since the lack of such control could lead to terrorism attacks, like that of 9/11. Although this is a reasonable cause as to why there should be tighter internet control, it will be very difficult to set a limit between what should be under surveillance and what should not.
An example of this would be the case of certain countries which are currently abusing the power to regulate internet content. For instance, in 2016, after Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro declared that the country was in a “state of exception and economic emergency,” anti-government protests and riots broke on the streets. People started uploading images and videos of those scenes. However, the government blocked the content from going online. This goes to show that internet control, when taken to an extreme, can lead to the manipulation of an entire population, which in turn takes away these people’s freedom of access to information and eventually of expression. This is a further reason why a free internet would be better than a controlled one.
Another issue which may be addressed when talking about internet freedom and control is that of “fake news”, which is now seen as one of the greatest threats to democracy (according to an article from The Telegraph). Although it is something that has been around for centuries, its recent widespread has been a result of the ease with which information is uploaded to the world wide web. The greatest concern regarding fake news is the fact that it could lead to a misguided and misinformed society. A society in which fake news is read and believed would be giving into ignorance, ironically losing the freedom that has been the reason fake news has become common in the first place.
Although fake news is a big disadvantage of internet freedom, there is a plausible way to escape this difficulty. As Laura Zommer, an Argentinian journalist, puts it, the answer is “to educate and to innovate.” The solution is to teach people how to think critically, to evaluate facts and opinions, and to check the reliability of the sources being used. As has been mentioned previously, fake news has been around for a long time; we only need to instruct people how to discern the statistics from beliefs.
While internet control is good to a certain extent, the line between what should be restricted and what shouldn't is quite blurred. Added to this is the fact that internet itself has become essential to our freedom of expression and speech, one can see that internet freedom is better than internet control.