Online Democracy: Venezuela’s Government Biggest Fear
Nowadays, we humans have the privilege of living in a science-revolutionary era; the “technology era” and it is irrefutable that the Internet has a big responsibility in the creation of this new epoch. Without a doubt, the Internet is one of the greatest inventions ever made by humans and with the passage of time, the Internet has become more and more important to peoples’ daily lives, even generating a strong addiction. It is a great tool that has gained inexplicable power and relevance. Nonetheless, it seems to be a general truth that when something is running perfectly, there is always something else trying to interfere with it. In this case it is the government, more specifically, Venezuela’s government. They are attempting to censor content on the Internet. Why are they trying to censor and block content on the internet? Well, they believe that it would be a good strategy for them to do it. Now, is this acceptable? Absolutely not. The government does not have enough arguments or objective reasons to do the censor; it is everyone’s right to use the Internet as they want to and it is not government’s business to control what you do on the web, it is yours.
But, what really happens? It is simple, the government is afraid. Yes, just as you read it, they are afraid. You may be wondering; if that is so, what are they afraid of? Freedom of speech. Nowadays, the Internet provides great tools for people to express themselves and governments are aware that their “image” is threatened by this powerful source of information. So they try to protect themselves from this huge freedom monster by censoring content using excuses such as those mentioned in Fabiola Sanchez’s article “Venezuela Extends Media Regulations to Internet.” Sanchez writes, “The law prohibits messages and images that ‘disrespect public authorities,’ ‘incite or promote hatred’ or crimes, or could create ‘anxiety in the citizenry or alter public order.’ ” Now, my question is: Is that really possible? Can they check every single web page on the Internet to find out who is meeting the parameters and who is not? I don’t think that is possible, and neither do they. That’s why they are intending to do a specific censor to social networks and blogs, hiding their real intentions under those “reasons” mentioned in Sanchez’s article.
Social networks and blogs are the best way for people to share their feelings, emotions and, most importantly, opinions. They allow the user to interact with the whole world in real time, in an easy way, and also, freely. This represents a great advantage for people to let the world know what is happening in a specific situation. And everyone knows that politics is always a trending topic. According to a research chart made by OpenNet Initiative, 20% of the content that is being censored on the internet is blogs. It is important to mention that 20% is the highest percentage on the scale. Then 9% of what is being censored on the Internet are individual web pages, and 5% forums. What does this mean? Peoples’ rights to express their beliefs are being blocked. The power of the freedom and real democracy is tremendous. What happened in Egypt is a perfect example of this. Social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, played a vital role in Egypt’s situation, and look what the result was: people’s thoughts were heard, they fought, and they succeeded. Democracy succeeded. Other governments, especially communism-based governments, are concerned about this.
But now, many people would argue: So, what do we do with all the pornography on the web? How can parents keep their children away from this and other negative content that is widespread all over the web? What about sites and blogs that promote violence and terrorism? Someone has to take care of these problems, of course. But what many people haven’t realized yet is that the solution is simpler than what it seems. In fact, the solution is right there at the same place where the problem’s source is, on the Internet. There are thousands of applications that allow the user to protect their children or any person from undesired web pages or content, and you can find these programs easily by “Googling.” Likewise, if you are surfing on the web and you find out that there is a site promoting violence, you can denounce it or report it to the host of the web page. They will inspect the page and decide if they will shut it down or not. Again, there are many ways to handle these situations without the government interceding.
In order to “maintain public peace” and “protect the country’s values,” governments censor material and web pages on the Internet. However, the face behind the mask is simple: they want to limit freedom of speech in the digital world. Besides this, other questions arise. Is this a government matter? Is it part of government’s job to do what they want with the Internet? How can they determine whether content is hazardous or not? As Harry Lewis states in his article “The Dangers of Internet Censorship,”: “Determining which ideas are “harmful” is not the government’s job.” Venezuela has problems in every sector that you can imagine: the economy, security, jobs, public goods, among many others. Why, instead of trying to find ways to solve these problems, are they trying to mess with the Internet? They don’t care about anything else except themselves and their power. Power blinds people, I have heard.
The Internet has become an essential part of people’s lives, it has given us new ways to express ourselves and to let the world know what we think, what we like, and what we want. The Internet provides men the power to believe in a democratic-technological revolution. It is part of your rights to take advantage of that power as you want, and neither the government nor anybody can take that freedom away from you.
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