Talkback Thursday: Is The Internet Too Free?

The internet has spread to a worldwide phenomenon over the past two decades, creating a superhighway of information, commerce and communication unparalleled in human history. Today, people all over the globe are connected together with instantaneous communication, allowing them to see and hear ideas or items that were simply not possible before.

However, such freedom also comes with a price. For every advantage that the internet offers, there are also images, words, sounds and items that can be offensive to many people. Regulating this content without undue censorship is the goal of many nations, but how it can be achieved without impinging on the freedom that is present is certainly up for debate.

In the past couple of weeks in Malaysia, there have been statements like:

'A special task force will be set up to monitor social media websites to act against those who break the law by spreading rumours or seditious and incendiary remarks online.'

"The time has come for us to filter the internet," - Tun Dr Mahathir

We’ve also witnessed wild speculation as to what’s happened regarding the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 - due to the necessity of getting information out first, rather than fact checking, or checking up on sources - most of this speculation fueled by reports on social media.

So our question was - "Is the Internet too free? Are the calls to censor the Internet reasonable?"