Censorship

ERIKA DITZMAN | OPINION COLUMNIST

Censorship is defined by the American Civil Liberties Union as “the suppression of words, images or ideas that are are offensive,” happening “whenever some people succeed in imposing their personal, political or moral values on others.” Occurring on a variety of different levels, from the government and booming corporations to a more individual basis, information is often censored for personal belief and profit in various forms of media.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” With this Supreme Law of the Land establishing freedom in media, the government itself does not comply with these principles, setting a standard in which others are also permitted to ignore the laws set in place. The government, exercising censorship for the purpose of discouraging dissent, has increased this practice exponentially as of January 20, 2017. Little more than a few hours into Donald Trump’s presidency, any content pertaining to the LGBTQ community was removed from federal websites. Furthermore, Trump’s claims of “fake news” plaguing the media suppresses media expression, especially when he has become their target. He consequently replaces facts with fiction as he attempts to appeal to supporters and imposes his “personal, political or moral values on others,” as is the very definition of censorship.

Similarly, business corporations censor product details to a great extent, achieving extensive profits often as a result of consumer ignorance. As a prime example, the FDA defines healthy foods as those that do not “exceed one gram of saturated fat per reference amount customarily consumed” or one gram of saturated fat per serving. KIND, a producer of tasty fruit and nut bars, defies the parameters of this definition. With anywhere from one to five grams of saturated fat per serving, this product is yet advertised as “healthy” by the company and further confirmed by the FDA. With numerous instances such as this, the public is unaware of what exactly they are consuming. For those with health complications, the tiniest differentiation from the nutrition facts may prove detrimental.

At a more individual level, censorization often becomes a negative commonality in social media. The use of technology provides a veil through which people may censor themselves from other users. Any amount of information can be fabricated. No person is as they are initially perceived.

Such deception preys upon vulnerable users for personal gain. Dating sites stand as a primary source for scammers, assuming a different identity with an appealing description and snazzy profile picture, to charm users into providing personal information. This includes bank account access, credit cards and social security numbers, robbing the victim and destroying their hard-earned livelihood. Approximately four million people are scammed each year, a number that increases significantly as our reliance on social media replaces traditional face-to-face contact.

Media censorship is cleverly hidden in everyday media. Although difficult to identify, a little bit of critical thinking and some in depth research quickly absolves this problem. We must think for ourselves and come to our own conclusions. It is our responsibility to become educated and informed consumers. Nowadays, there are few who we can trust.