Censorship to Replace Free Speech

In a time, when 62 percent of Americans get their news from social media, according to a 2016 Pew Research Center report by Jeffrey Gottfried and Elisa Shearer, and "fake news" becoming increasingly more common, concerns over the uses of the internet become ever more grave.

The internet was first available for the public in the early 1980's, with many experts expecting and hoping this new World Wide Web would create a space for the sharing and expressing of ideas in a way to provoke thought and dialogue across ideological lines.  Well, this was the case for the first couple of decades, until the early 2000's with the spread of social media, and manipulation of the public for economic and political gains, as Lee Raine explains in a Pew Research Center report from last month.

Today, social media touches almost every life within The United States.  Social media has essentially become the life blood of connecting friends, family, and the world.  So its not surprising to see the statistic presented by Gottfried and Shearer mentioned before.  However, the concern comes with the manipulation of the public for the gains of others.  Which in todays time is exactly what fake news is doing.

The spread of fake news is a problem that the people of the country need to take control over, but they are not going to do that.  The United States thrives off convenience, and it isn't convenient to take such action in learning to distinguish between the truth and click bait.  No, the fake news will get worse because of the complexity of the internet and the personal incentive for financial gain through publishing fake news.  Then, the outcry for companies will really be prevalent and there will be some measures put in place to slow down the publishers of fake news, but it won't be enough.  Finally, the United States has become a place where the majority of its people look to the Federal government to solve the problems.  This will usher in more government surveillance and censorship.