Bans, Bots, and Brute Force
In the wake of the TikTok ban on some public university campuses (and now, maybe altogether), censorship has become a hot topic for Gen Z. While it may be enjoyable to poke fun and retweet all the memes about it, it's a topic worth further investigating. The issue of censorship goes beyond being unable to scroll on campus or in government buildings; censorship impacts more of our lives than we even realize. From TikTok to the use of bots to the recent attacks on BBC India, censorship can be seen to affect various aspects of our lives. So, what are these attacks on our freedom of speech, and what do they tell us about censorship?
TikTok
TikTok has been one of the fastest-growing media platforms in the last 5 years, so what led to its ban? Well, it's a little complicated, but the short answer…its parent company is notorious for sharing data with the Chinese government.
With current U.S. and China relations, the TikTok ban has been chalked up to protecting U.S. national security and ensuring the protection of data from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). While this precaution may be reasonable at face value, the company is up in arms, claiming this ban cannot be about China and U.S. relations. As a matter of fact, TikTok has been lobbying in the U.S. Congress, spending millions of dollars on lawmakers, and making moves to change their business to fit U.S. standards.
On the one hand, if TikTok is selling data to the CCP, our data and media is being politically monopolized against our country's interest. Indicating that censorship, in this case, has good intent. However, TikTok, as a lobbying group, raises the question of how legitimate U.S. concern over the app really is. Suppose TikTok is not selling our data to the Chinese Communist Party. In that case, this censorship could be an unethical attempt by the U.S. to control the greater media which would raise concerns regarding an end goal.
Bots
A bot is essentially a computer program designed to mimic the actions and/or persona of a real human online. Recently they have been utilized across multiple media platforms to push content off the internet and spread false information. Most notably, bots have been used in the media for U.S. elections to push out false election information. This has led companies and the U.S. government to start putting sanctions on what is allowed to be posted or spread online. Companies have implemented programs within their apps to catch bots and limit what they are allowed to do online.
The implications of censorship in the monitoring of bots are more black and white when compared to the controversy surrounding TikTok. Most people would agree ensuring the validity of online information is a good thing, but it does raise the question of who controls the media and the possible allowance of political monopolies in the future. This opens a pandora's box; what if someone in the future wants to use these precedents to ONLY push out false information? What is the future collateral damage of deciding what can be posted and what cannot, and will this come back to bite us?
BBC India
A recent major attempt at media censorship is the February attacks by the Indian government on BBC India. The channel produced a documentary that was critical of India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, and his role (or lack of) in the genocide of India's Hindi-Muslim population in 2002. The documentary featured his violent past and questionable rise in politics that was swept under the rug during his election. Right after the documentary aired in the UK, Modi hit BBC India with tax evasion allegations and sent government officials to shut down the channel while under further investigation. However, the ulterior motive behind this move was buying Modi time to invoke emergency information laws to block the streaming of the documentary. Many would deem this an overreach of power and an intimidation mechanism to deter the media from harsh critiques of his reign.
Political censorship is arguably the most threatening form of media censorship. It can crumble governments and hurt the most vulnerable populations, regionally and internationally. However, the real danger lies in its ability to inspire others to exert censorship across the globe. This form of censorship is also one of the oldest and has roots well before print publications. Who or what country is going to censor their media next, and to what extent?
So Now What?
Like most things in life, there is no "one solution fits all" in the fight against censorship. Looking at the increasingly digital world, online freedom is essential. Yet how do we protect the most vulnerable aspects of our world while maintaining such liberty? Is it even possible? While there is no correct or concise answer to these questions, media censorship will continue to be an aspect of our society and will only get more discrete. While some censorship is arguably good, others may be uncalled for. In whatever aspect censorship affects us, we must maintain a sense of awareness and think critically about its implications.
Written by Leah Lara, Design: Morgan Tran, Social Media: Sara Hartung