Essay Sample on Role of Social Media in Freedom of Expression

Introduction

The current generation relies greatly on social media to express their opinions and convey a variety of information to the public. The information posted in social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, telegram, twitter, LinkedIn among others escalates very fast to a huge population who eventually reacts to it in different ways (House, 2015). As a result, some government has imposed legislation regulating the use of social media arguing that it is a platform that promotes hate speech, insults and incitement. For that matter, arguments have emerged in the society where other people holds that social media has promoted the freedom of speech while the other category holding that social media has promoted incitements, insults, and threats without fear of punishment. Regardless of these two debates that are ongoing in governments and other bodies, the fact remains that social media has enhanced freedom of speech in today's world.

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Anciently, people lacked a common mode of communication to express their views pertaining to different issues in the society thus always suffered in silence. The human rights provide that everyone has a freedom of expression on any issue that affects them in society in any way (Osler, 2015). However, the rights forbid propagated information, incitements, hatred on any grounds and insults. Most of these social media platforms have rules and regulations against that and bears no liability of any individual found perpetrating such illegalities.

The current generation takes to social media any issue that goes against human rights and dignity to condemn such actions and obtain justice. In relation to democracy, social media has been a tool for participatory governance. Most governments and states insist on public participation on various matters that affect them and before implementing any bill in the legislature, public participation is always given a priority (Sunstein, 2018). Since people live far away and are always engaged in various tasks, reaching out to them has been a problem for time immemorial limiting participatory governance until the introduction of social media. These days, nations use social media to get various views of the citizens before coming into a consensus on a given matter.

Participatory governance entails various aspects such as civic, political and development governance. Civic and political governance is involved on matters relating to human rights and politics while development governance handles planning, budgeting and monitoring how the public resources are utilized towards economic and social growth and advancements (Nica, & Potcovaru, 2015). Social media has played a greater role in ensuring that these functions are adequately done at the interests of the citizens but not the authorities. The most commonly used media platforms of gathering public views are Twitter and Facebook.

For instance, the United States of America has established participatory budgeting where they seek to obtain public views on the municipal budgeting through social media platforms and discussions with various groups representing the people in the society (Osler, 2015). The state engages in dialogue with various stakeholders and gets peoples standpoints in formulating, implementing and monitoring public programs and rules to ensure that such rules do not infringe on the rights of the citizen. As a result, social media has enhanced and promoted the relationship between governments and its citizens.

John F. Kennedy once stated that the future of any nation depends on the current prospects of its youth. For a long time, many youths in the developing nations have not been engaged in governance despite them being the majority (Stevens et al., 2017). This little engagement has given the youths little opportunities to engage in governance and has said on issues affecting them. However, since the incorporation of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram amongst other, the youths have created several groups where they discuss political issues, development issues and even brainstorm and advocate for their inclusion in governance. Through these media, they have discussed several issues affecting them such as drug and substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, unemployment, gender equality, and youth leadership freely without any interference (Yamamoto, Kushin & Dalisay, 2015). Consequently, the prevalence of some of the problems that greatly hindered the activities of the younger population such as drug and substance abuse, HIV/AIDS has significantly reduced.

Since social media promotes freedom of speech, it has enhanced social activism and volunteering in society. Many people suffer in society due to their economic status, ignorance, skin color and other discriminatory factors (Gerbaudo, 2018). However, there are individuals who have volunteered to speak out against practices through blogs and twitter handles. This action has in turn improved the accountability and responsibility of various department in an establishment charged with the protection of such rights.

Volunteers and activists have also utilized such platforms to create accountability and transparency in corporate governance by unmasking the corrupt individuals in the government and calling for public participation in condemnation of such practices. Through this social media platforms, the activists have called for online protest campaigns to ensure such information reaches the whole digital landscape (Sunstein, 2018). These online campaigns have taken several issues viral that have eventually led to victories.

For example, in 2015, there was a human right campaign that advocated for equal marriages in the United States of America. This campaign had a red logo and that took over Facebook and became the most tweeted and retweeted human rights campaign in history. Several individuals from various groups with different cultures and ethical values expressed their views about that campaign. Different celebrities shared such campaign in their twitter platforms with the hashtag, "It is TIME!!! #EQUALITY (Vie, 2014). Despite some cultural practices having negative attitudes towards the same marriage, people found social media platforms convenient channels to communicate and advocate for such legislation. Due to the intensity of the campaigns in the social media by many people including the former President of the United States Barrack Obama, the court finds the ban on equal marriages illegal and it became a fundamental right for all.

However, during the activism process, there may be incitements and insults that may lead to violence in society. This is not part of the freedom of expression as freedom of expression entails matters that positively impacts into people's lives (Gerbaudo, 2018). As a result, every individual bears the liability that may come from hate speech or incitements against an individual, society or a group. The federal government has established an ATF agent that is responsible for criminal violations related to explosives, firearms, arson and drug abuse through a thorough surveillance. This agency plays a critical role in capturing those who may use social media to communicate and organize such criminal activities.

Further, people have used social media platforms to seek justice in the society where people freely shared unethical practices in the society and advocate for justice to prevail. During the traditional times, ladies and children underwent discrimination and abuse in society. However, the emergence of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter has played vital roles in condemning such instances without fear of victimization (House, 2015). Various individuals and groups of human rights such as the United Nations have utilized Facebook and Twitter to handle social injustices. Various campaigns towards respect for girl child and stoppage of child abuse have been driven through social media platforms that led to the awareness of the importance of gender equality, education and how to handle domestic conflicts. Hitherto, gender abuse, child abuse and denial of education have significantly reduced in the current world due to increased awareness in the society and social media platforms for advocating against such practices.

Nonetheless, social media led to the elimination of unethical cultural practices such as female genital mutilation in some of the African cultures. These mediums of communication provided a platform where the society would be educated on the dangers of such practices and reports would be made of the particular people practicing that to relevant authorities for necessary actions (Yamamoto, Kushin, & Dalisay, 2015). Earlier before, social media people lacked platforms to express themselves freely without fear of victimization and gain knowledge on such cultures.

It is unsatisfactory to argue that social media platform allow users to insult, bully and threaten others since there are several regulations that illegalize such in information in social media. Instead, social media has played a huge role in the promotion of peaceful coexistence and harmony in society. Besides, it has advocated for democracy in dictatorial governments and regimes by providing a medium through which the citizens can communicate their views without falling victims of their actions.

Many organizations, individuals and groups have advocated for peace in times of war through social media rather than incitements. For instance, when there was war in Syria most people took it to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram condemning civil war and calling upon human rights groups such as the United Nations to intervene (Kaufmann, 2015). Due to these campaigns for peace, various organization, leaders and groups such as the United Nations came in to help in the resolution of the conflicts.

Moreover, social media platform has acted as a precautionary platform where the government, the journalists and other concerned individuals inform the people about any strategy that may harm them. The media houses have managed to inform its citizens about terrorists' plans so that they avoid hotspots by such groups. Besides, people get to learn about eventualities and disasters such as accidents, floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes through platforms like Facebook and twitter hence take care when approaching such areas. Like during the Norway attack in 2011, social media played a great role in emergency governance (Kaufmann, 2015). For that matter, social media is seen to play a great role in ensuring human safety thus rendering the other opinion of being a causative medium of chaos invalid.

In a bid to deal with restricting and handle deceptive and inciting information in the social media, the federal governments have established various bodies like ATF, FTC, and FCC. The last two deal with advertisements that are misleading, contains abusive language, racial incitements, or nudity (Krouse, 2009). While the first one, ATF is focused on protecting the public against information that may promote drug abuse, terrorism, arson, to mention but a few.

Conclusion

Freedom of speech is a constitutional right of every individual that should not be restricted. Statements that seek to incite, promote violence and hatred do not constitute freedom of expression thus unacceptable in social media. it is evident that social media platform especially Facebook and Twitter have played a vital role in the promotion of democracy, participatory governance, and justice by allowing freedom of speech regardless of one's status thus transformations towards a better society.

References

Gerbaudo, P. (2018). Tweets and the streets: Social media and contemporary activism. Pluto Press.

House, F. (2015). Freedom on the Net 2011. Obtenido de https://...