written by Ikhwan Jamaludin (free speech)
When we talk about free speech we always think that free speech comes into word from our tongue. So, when we say something, someone will agree with us and maybe someone will argue us. That is life. But, still there are also some restrictions in free speech according to First Amendment. Nowadays, free speech not only comes from our tongue, it also can come from our hand through cyberspace. According to Lessig, free speech in cyberspace is "relative anonymity, decentralized distribution, multiple points of access, no necessary tie to geography, and no simple system to identify content, tools of encryption". For me, free speech on cyberspace gives us a big impact. If, we want to argue something, we argue by speak out the argument to the public, but, maybe no one want to listen to us because we have no position in community and knowledge about it. Differently, through cyberspace, free speech attracts more attention from others to hear and see what we want to point out in our concern, comment or argument in our free speech. In cyberspace, we can describe our speech more clearly and express it creatively through a video or flash player to emphasize what we want to point out. Sometimes, free speech in cyberspace was trespass by society. So, here is where the First Amendment was read differently for cyberspace to protect free speech. The first amendment in cyberspace is like the first amendment with no regulation Like Lessig said in code, a First Amendment is "more extreme in code than our own First Amendment in law". So, from this understanding, internet actually is just like a medium of free speech to be practiced. Even though, it is easier to practice free speech in cyberspace and trespassing it but still there is restriction from the First Amendment to protect free speech.
2 comments:
I agree with what ikhwan said that internet is the medium for practicing free speech. We could say anything by the way that we want to. Internet is the real protector of free speech as its system that everyone is anonymous. We could not know who write unless they declared themselves. The real space seems unfair to certain people as their voice could not be heard by others but in cyberspace, they could attract people to hear what they want to say. Most of the country protects the value of free speech by regulating law. The value of free speech certainly should be protected as it give people chances to be more active in developing community and become more responsible as citizen instead just ignoring others. we have to care and open to accept others opinion because we live in the world that has different types of people and yet different types of ideas. Regarding to Lessig, people might believe that government is just a threat to free speech. Sometimes, the government seems did it in real space as we are not allowed to do an objection directly but in cyberspace, the government just zoning our access on certain web. The private companies might even mean as they filtering the access without we noticed it as no any transparent toward it.
-Lily Syafikah Mansor-
Aizat Ismail.
Summarizing to what Ikhwan said, you cannot deny that we are now living in a world where boundaries or restrictions are not the major concerns. The advancement in technological innovations allows us to say that information is at our fingertips. Why am I saying this? Nowadays we have the internet, which can be considered as one of the best technologies ever has been created, to help us do almost whatever that we wish for. Far more surprising, one can even have a second life in a virtual world within the internet where one can decide and control what will happen to his or her "virtual-human like character" or at least that is what being said. What are these all telling you about? Does free speech coincides in your minds? You might say that. You might also saying that this is how somewhat kind of freedom playing its role in justifying free speech.
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