Why striving for a censorship-free world matters
Did you know that 90% of american mainline media are controlled by 6 corporations?
- General Electric
- News Corp.
- Disney
- Viacom
- Time Warner
- CBS
Back in 1983 that "media power" was distributed between 50 companies.
I encourage Steemians to check out concerned dad and blogger Trent Jonas' extremely educational infographic at frugaldad.com for more details. Even businessinsider.com featured his work.
So these are the 6 corporations that give you the staged reality shows and promote the values their advertisers and shareholders want you to consume.
Over 270 million americans are exposed to this manufactured consent. Without the need for any more detailing I think it is objectively fair to say that there is a concern on potential censorship power to formulate it in diplomatic terms.
How 147 corporations control the global economy
Now compare this on the other hand to the results of a scientific study that has been published in the esteemed New Scientist in October 2011 with the title "Revealed - the capitalist network that runs the world".
A team of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich used the Orbis 2007 database listing, with 37 million companies and investors worldwide, to construct the model on which companies are controlled through shareholding networks, operating revenue etc., in order to map out the structure of economic power.
The result was a core of 1318 companies with interlocking ownerships tracking back to an even tighter core of 147 of them essentially controlling 40% of the total network.
It is not surprising that most of those 147 corporations are financial institutions.
Do you think it might be possible that this handful of corporations has an influence on the 6 above mentioned that control 90% of the american mainline media?
Enter the unelected administrative arm of the European Union: the European Commission
The steemians in here residing anywhere in europe might be interested to know that "The European Union (EU), in partnership with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft, has unveiled a "code of conduct" to combat the spread of "illegal hate speech" online in Europe" as announced on May 31st 2016 in which it is claimed that the above mentioned "share, together with other platforms and social media companies, a collective responsibility and pride in promoting and facilitating freedom of expression throughout the online world."
However according to the Gatestone Institute in New York "Some Members of the European Parliament have characterized the EU's code of online conduct -- which requires "offensive" material to be removed from the Internet within 24 hours -- as "Orwellian."
If sections like "By signing this code of conduct, the IT companies commit to continuing their efforts to tackle illegal hate speech online. This will include the continued development of internal procedures and staff training to guarantee that they review the majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal hate speech in less than 24 hours and remove or disable access to such content, if necessary." raise concerns in you, it is time to reflect on the topic of censorship.
The Huffington post has a "Media Censorship" section with lots of more in-depth examples on the topic.
Censorship is defined as "the suppression of free speech, public communication or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions." by Wikipedia.
So how could Steemit pave the way to a censorship-free world?
Well the fact that we're all communicating on a globally distributed blockchain technology that not even the creators of the technology can censor or stop anymore allows for any opinion to be voiced without exceptions.
There will always be people that argue on privacy or security issues or biased reporting as well as hype or the above regulated "hate speech" topic.
But the philosophical question is if you want to live in a world or future where institutionalized entities claim to have power over you in regards to what you should or should not be exposed to or express.
I don't know about you, but for me the freedom of expression is a right that no human should ever be denied under any circumstances. I trust that a community or society is able to self-regulate if a member is a potential harm for his environment by merely expressing his or her thoughts.
In that sense Steemit is already a global experiment in which anybody can actively participate in. It is up to the community to prove to the world that we as a collective are able to deal with the challenges of global free speech and find ways of finding collectively the best solutions for potentially arising problems.
Which institution in history can you come up with that you would essentially trust under any circumstances? The government, the church, the big corporations, non or for profit alike? How about charities or academia?
So why would we allow any group or institution to censor what we should or should not be exposed to?
I don't know how the growing Steemit community will handle those questions but I certainly am excited to witness the emergence of a censorship-free world thanks to the blockchain and all those of you that embrace and nurture this wonderful technological genie that is out of the bottle now!