Government's Grasp on Social Media

            

            Social Media has always been a powerful tool. With the power to spread information and news in the matter of seconds, it can be a dangerous platform to governments and society. That is why some governments have opted to limit and censor social media in their country. With many of them opting to limit access to the biggest social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, they have decided to limit the freedom of their citizens. What we take for granted in America is limited and it demonstrates the power that other governments have on their citizens. But to understand their decisions we have to look into the actions that these governments are trying to limit.

            Ruling with an Iron Fist, North Korea has been in the forefront in limiting citizen’s rights. Even though North Korea has access to the Internet, many citizens are not able to access it or are too scared to use it. Even the graduate students and professors in North Korea’s Universities frightened to use the internet because of the backlash that comes from the government. The dictatorship rule over North Korea is the modern interpretation of the society that was ruled by the totalitarianism government in 1984 and it is really scary to know that this exists. Yet, not all counties that limit access to social media are like this. Many countries block social media due to the government issues or controversial issues that appear on these sites. For example, Turkey and Iran have limited access to social media platforms before and after their Presidential elections. Due to the increased political tensions that happen during these elections they have decided to stop access to these sites. With the spread of videos that include violence and political corruption it is easy to see why these governments have stopped access to these sites. Yet, politicians and governments should place more emphasis on stopping these actions from happening in the first place. If they prevent these crimes from happening then they won’t have to limit access to Social Media sites. The ability to limit the communications of people will ultimately lead to disagreements between the state and the government and that will lead to more violence between the two.

            This leads into the case of China’s limit on social media. Even though they have access to these sites since 2009 due to violent riots, they have violated the rights of another country and limited their communication. Ever since Sunday, Hong Kong has been struggling to protest against the Chinese’s government take-over of its city. With many students taking to the streets of Hong Kong they have been demonstrating against China’s decisions to limit their elections. These protests eventually led to violence between the police and demonstrators and soon China began to limit social media to Instagram as the protest escalates. This reveals how scared China is of this protest that is taking place in Hong Kong. The Chinese government should’ve taken more precaution to prevent this protest from happening because it will escalate to something bigger and more violent. Hopefully this doesn’t escalate and become the next Tiananmen Square Protest that has ended in the death of thousands of people which included many students. Governments like these should end their absolute rule over people and they should allow them to have more freedom to express their opinions. Without these basic rights that people deserve, many people will protest in peace and in violence against these governments and it will end with chaos and violence in many places.

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/countries-social-media-banned_b59035
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/turkey-facebook-youtube-twitter-blocked