Out of the box Why the right type of censorship is necessary
Many people like democratic countries which allows the freedom to protest and express their views. 

They do not like the repressive measures and censorship taken by "autocratic" regimes.

I hold a different view. Let me explain.

The people who likes freedom of expression are generally well educated and reasonable people. However, they do not represent the majority of people.

I have seen many views expressed in social media from uninformed and unthinking people. They spread misinformation, usually created maliciously by other people. These false views can cause hate and create harm.

Many public demonstrations and rallies started peacefully, and later turned violent. They are usually caused by a fringe group who takes advantage of the public protests to create chaos and violence. The fringe group infiltrate the event and attacked the law enforcers. The enforcers had to use force to stop them. The peaceful demonstration can quickly become violent.

The fringe group may or may not be sympathetic to the public demonstration. They may have a separate agenda to cause chaos and violence, perhaps for political goals.

I find the negative aspects of "freedom of speech" to be quite overwhelming. Hence, I support restrictions on public protests and censorship of social media. 

I have seen lately that the internet platforms, which used to be unrestricted, have started to change their stance. They now censor information that they consider to be harmful.  They have found the need to be "autocratic".

The problem is the ground rules adopted by the internet platform to apply their censorship and what they consider to be harmful. 

For example, they now censor information about alternative approaches to deal with the covid pandemic. They consider the alternative information to be harmful. 

Many people suspect that they have a commercial reason to support the vaccines produced by the pharmaceutical firms. I do not agree with censorship to promote commercial interest. 

It is clear to me that society needs a new way to deal with censorship of information. The free flow of false information can be harmful. The challenge is to determine what is true and what is false. 

I believe that we need a new public body, that has no vested political or commecial interest to determine what is harmful that need to be censored. This public body has to be independent and formed of people with high integrity.

Tan Kin Lian



 

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