Discussion Free Speech Online

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Free speech has been a fundamental principle in democratic societies, but as we have progressed as a society it seems like free speech has been put on the back burners and instead we worry about keeping everyone happy.

The truth is you cannot ever make everyone 100% happy and society is a place where compromise is necessary, that means that you will have conflicting opinions with other people. As such you might not like things that other people are saying, but just because you think it is wrong does not give you the right to disable that person from voicing their opinion.

This seems simple in principle but it has seemed in recent times that if you go against what the Canadian government says, they deem your view as harmful to society, which can be classified at both end of the extreme. But as a society it is our job to critically think about what is being said and to filter out what information is actually worth your time versus someone just spewing hatred. That is what makes us human, our key separation from other animals is out ability to use critical thinking skills, so if we take peoples ability to need to use these critical thinking skills are we enabling the population or disabling them?

I just think that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and even if that is a harmful one I think it should be in the hands of the people to deal with them accordingly, by using things like reporting them to their employer or by cancelling them. But allowing the government to infringe on our right to Free speech is outrageous and no matter if you agree with the persons opinion or not it should outrage you as well.

The idea of free speech was founded on face to face talking, they could not have planned on things like the internet coming about and changing how people fundamentally communicate with each other. It is a lot harder to hate on someone face to face than it is through a screen, as while on the internet people get confidence boosts and can hide behind the idea of anonymity.

And now with younger and younger generations of people using the internet it is important that we help shield them from the potential dangers that the internet can have. So although I agree people should not be censored for certain political beliefs, when things they are posting are hurting people and setting us back as a society is it truly wrong to take away their platform. Because free speech in person is a right, but free speech online is a privilege and it is clear that not everyone deserves that privilege.