What's the First?!

What Is It and Why Is It Important To Talk About?

Censorship as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is the institution, system, or practice of suppressing and deleting anything that is found to be objectionable.

As with free speech, press can not be regulated by the government, but it is instead regulated by social spheres and business spheres. For example, to publish a book, the content needs to fit the rules of the industry or it risks not being picked up by a publisher and risks not selling.

The issue comes when someone tries to censor every piece of media that they don't like. If everyone decides to ban a book because they don't agree with it, there would be no books. At all. Every book makes someone angry, every movie offends someone, and every news article is too "politically charged."

Figuring out what genuinely needs to be censored for the safety of the public and what just needs a content warning is what divides people from making an actual joint and rational decision about any of it.

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Censorship by law is illegal in this country, but that isn't the case in many other countries. Check out the International Tab to find out more!

International

Types of Censorship Mediums

News

Tv, radio, newspaper, articles, news is available through many different mediums and it can be censored through all of them. The news cuts out personal information to keep people's privacy safe, cut out gory details so that it's family friendly, and concealing national security information. Information can also be hidden to advance corporate interests and to ensure political neutrality.

Music

Music censorship is not very prevalent in the United States anymore, although it was for a while. There have been numerous court cases affirming that the First Amendment covered artistic expression and that a song or album could not be lawfully dealt with for obscenity. But even non-governmental organizations have lost the censorship fight to increasingly explicit and obscene lyrics, including swear words and varying slurs.

Video

From blockbuster movies to tv shows to YouTube tutorials, all type of video on the internet and in production is subject to censorship. Movies (and plays) get age ratings and restrictions, tv shows get different rules based on the different platforms, but there are still limits. YouTube gets censored through nudity, violence, swearing, all with the threat of being taken down or demonetized. Anything you post online is subject to being censored by the platform that you use and it isn't a violation of your rights, as you probably agreed to it in the Terms and Conditions or the Privacy Policy.

Books

Book banning is one of the most prevalent form of censorship in the United States and it happens when government officials, independent organizations, or individuals seek to remove books from libraries, schools, or bookstores because they do not agree with the message or theme within the book. Most individuals who wish for a book to be banned or removed are scared that the book will raise questions they aren't willing to discuss and bring about ideas into the minds of youth that they deem dangerous.

Art

There are various art forms, most of which we've covered above but physical art and digital art such as drawings, sculpture, and photographs are all copyrightable and all subject to censorship. Materials that are "obscene," but have clear "serious artistic value" can not be censored. The only reason art would be censored would be for obscenity and for offending others, or being defamatory. Satire is different from being offensive and defamatory.

Who Controls It?

Government

The government legally can not impose censorship laws, as this goes against the First Amendment Rights that the Bill of Rights grants the citizens.

Corporations/ Companies

As it's not by law, corporations and businesses can censor the speech of their employees, spokespersons, or business associates. This means social media can also censor people who use their sites that don't follow the agreement in the Terms in Conditions.

Scholarly Institutions

Schools and similar institutions have different rules on what you can and can't say, but it depends on the school. Typically, you can't swear or use hateful language and any discussions had must be politically correct. This can be upheld because of the social contract of public schools and the monetary contract of higher education institutions.

Censorship