Speak Freely on the Net?

Every year, there are numerous debates debating over freedom of speech online. Is there really freedom to speak or write whatever we want on the internet?

Internet or blogs introduced the idea of “uncensored and borderless world”. With internet, everyone in the world regardless of citizenship, race, culture, gender, age and etc can say anything online freely. This was the “ideal” idea that was introduced. But in reality, are such practices practiced online? If there is freedom online, why are authorities of the world still making up laws to protect freedom of speech online?

We can have complete freedom while blogging online, but issues like credibility, privacy may occur. According to Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), anyone has the rights to blog anonymously and to keep sources confidential. If everyone was to blog anonymously and keeps all sources confidential, there is no credibility at all. No one would use work that is written by “unknown” writer. Moreover, there is no trace of sources. Nielsen (2006) is very important web users. He stated it is crucial to use outbound and hypertext links for users to obtain more related information and also check the path and credibility of the materials used.

We can have certain level of freedom, but we cannot have complete freedom. If we have complete freedom on the internet, more issues and problems will occur. We cannot be to extreme! Governments and watchdogs are still needed to gatekeep contents posted on the net.

Readings and References:

Help us Protect Freedom Online! [Online, accessed 5 June 2007]
URL: >http://www.eff.org/br/

Nielson, J. Writing for the Web (9 parts) [Online, accessed 4 May 2007]
URL: http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/

What is Freedom of Speech Online? [Online, accessed 5 June 2007]
URL: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/jmrobins/milieux/index2.html