Many times you go through a report, you simply believed it because it sounds so real – believeable to be precise. The power of information cannot be over-emphasized and the Information age phrase explains to a good extent the influence of information on our generation. Many contemporary beliefs and perspectives are totally influenced by information available to the believers in question.
Hence, ability to provide individuals of just the sort of information you’d want them to have is the assured route towards getting them to believe just what you want them to. A convincing information is hence a fact (not necessarily a truth) and is tantamount to the audience / spectators believing these information and the subject as the case may be. The concept of myths and superstitions have shown the ability of available information to influence beliefs.
The internet have grown with other information technologies and is arguably the most popular information technology. With the infinite connection of people from different locations and background surfing the internet everyday via the web, the internet have presents a platform for information dissemination at a flash speed, relative to pre-existing means. Together with these pre-existing and emerging information technologies, the internet has made information spread at an amazing speed.
Having known the enormous influence information has on the audience, parties directly concerned in a subject and other interested parties tend to modify information reaching out to the audience as regards the subject, putting away some aspects of the information going out, modify it to suit their interests; and in most cases Suppressing others who have access to more knowledge about the subject from sharing this information. If there’s any endangered specie in the information age, it is the freedom of speech.
Prior to the advent of democracy, political manipulation of information and suppression of individuals’ freedom to speak about a subject was a thing, unfortunately, this has continued amidst democracy and widespread civilization – this act is just more civilized. Platforms providing individuals an avenue to share their knowledge about subjects and issues have grown considerably that apart from designated press firms, individuals can disseminate information to an unthinkable extent in a little time, thanks to the evolution of personal blogs and social media. This shifts the power to the people, unfortunately, this is just an icing on a stale cake.
Web 2 platforms holds the ultimate key to how information is shared/ spread using their platform. This is however skeuomorphic as this centralization is a also a real-life concept. Recent updates across the internet includes lamentations of individuals whose shared information have either been modified noticeably, censored or deleted entirely from the platforms, and in extreme circumstances; their accounts on these platforms are removed totally or restricted. To a large extent, Centralization of web 2 platforms have helped to keep the internet healthier and ensure that undesired information are not spread across the platform and outside it. However recent experiences have shown that these actions are more of suppressing people’s freedom of speech on topics of interest rather than keeping the platforms healthy…as promised. Many unscrupulous activities still proceed on these platforms while information about topics of interest are being met with censorship attacks.
Beyond the internet, free speech should be a fundamental human right and is paramount in a democratic and civilized society, allowing everyone the opportunity to share their views with available points without being attacked creates a perfect democratic society, and just as the human right declaration states:
It is these rights and freedom that makes us humans
With the foregoings, even the animals in the wild seems to have more freedom of speech/ expression than humans
The need for free speech and an equal opportunity for members of a society to freely air their views about a subject cannot be exaggerated. Not only does this make beings more human, it is the true definition of democracy and a means to reliable information as the current press firms are prone to censorship and constructive manipulation of information to suit their interests or that of interested parties. Cryptocurrency speakers and enthusiasts are currently having a rough time with video hosting platforms as well as blogging platforms as articles and videos related to cryptocurrency are being censored put down and in some cases, their profiles on these platforms are banned or restricted as the case may be.
This simply attacks a topic of interest which people needs to have the right information about, while topics like this do not pose any threat to human life or negatively disrupts existing information many content which does are left to float these platforms.
If a real democracy and civilization will ever be a thing, free speech if paramount. Web 2 platforms have continuously made this look impossible, with cases of censorship and mismanagement of information growing everyday across web 2 platforms, and even offline, free speech is a haunted bird and the most endangered specie of the information/internet age.
Web 3 to the rescue! With the advent of blockchain technology which hopes to drive decentralization and platforms built on the blockchain which provides its users a platform where mutation of information is impossible, accounts which cannot be stopped from sharing and a community oriented platform where decisions are community driven, you have a choice now. Continue on web 2 platforms where the owners of these platforms decide what you share and how you share (and when you share it, lol) or port to web 3 platforms such as Hive where you have this freedom with added advantages such more interactions and healthy community action, the ball is on your court, play it to your taste.
