Socio-Economic Disadvantages of Implementing the Internet Censorship

(2019 English - Persuasive Writing)

 

Koo, Jae-young 2

Ms. Kelley

English Communication

16 November 2019

 

Socio-Economic Disadvantages of Implementing the Internet Censorship

 

  A few weeks ago, one of my Chinese teachers told me about the way China achieved economic development, especially associated with the ‘mass media.’ At that time, she said that there are some people who think that one of the factors which have caused China to be able to develop was the internet censorship. But, well, I do not agree, and I cannot agree with the idea. Then, some people who heard this might ask me, “Do you disagree with the internet censorship because your freedom of expression might be limited by the internet censorship?” But absolutely not just because of it. I would like to take the opposite stance of matters with respect to letting the government monitor the internet and use the internet censorship, for the following reasons.

  First of all, the internet censorship that is implemented by the government can have some negative effects on the economy of the specific country where the policy is proceeded. Enterprises that are founded relatively anew, which are also called ‘start-ups,’ are very important for the economy of the country. According to the report of Spencer L. Tracy, Jr., start-ups grow at rates far beyond those of ordinary companies, and in some instances, start-ups were several hundred percent faster in the research (Tracy 54). And it means that start-ups grow a lot faster than old enterprises, and this kind of growth of each companies can also have effect advantageously on the economy of each countries. But under the internet censorship policy, entrepreneurs from the newly founded enterprises may have hard time marketing, and that is likely to lead to the overall decrease of the potential growth power of the enterprises, as the lack of promotion regarding the products or enterprises itself arises. And that is the reason why I think that the economy of China would be able to develop more, or even surpass the one of the United States, if it does not use internet censorship.

  And the internet control on governmental level can make people feel quite uncomfortable, especially in case of tourists. When my family had been to China, where the internet censorship is widely used by the government, I was not able to use Kakaotalk, nor Instagram. Later, I found out that it was because of the internet censorship implemented by Chinese government, and it felt extremely uncomfortable at least for me and my family. Is the Chinese government looking at all the things that I do with my electronic devices? Does it monitor the inside of my phone? It made me feel really uncomfortable. I am Korean, and since I am not Chinese, I cannot fully believe in the Chinese government, and I guess there also exist Chinese who do not believe in their government. I felt as if my private areas were deadly invaded by Chinese government. I do not even know what the Chinese government is planning to do with all my information saved in my phone. I guess there are a lot of people who thought as same as my family. This kind of internet censorship does make people feel unpleasant.

  Someone might say that the government should use the internet censorship because they think that the internet censorship can protect us from being exposed to the danger of societal crimes such as sex trafficking, human trafficking, illicit drugs trade and so on. But I do not agree with it, either. Those terrible societal crimes occur not only on the internet, but also on off-line, and there is no conviction that even online crimes can be deterred by the internet censorship. How much will the internet censorship be able to prevent those crimes? Is it really able to prevent them with the internet censorship? And OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, also once admitted that policy initiatives in terms of internet censorship require government co-ordination and there is only limited quantitative information as to costs and efficiency (Perset 24). Is the internet censorship, which might cost a lot to be implemented, the only way to prevent them? Can it produce advantages or profit as much as it costed during the process of proceeding the policy? I am sure that it will not. It is too inefficient to proceed internet censorship thoughtlessly.

  In conclusion, internet censorship can not only make internet users feel unpleasant, but also have negative effects on the economy in terms of founding new enterprises and the great expensive for implementing the policy compared to its effectiveness. For these reasons suggested, I strongly oppose to the monitoring and the internet censorship implemented by the government.

 

Works Cited

Perset, Karine. “THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ROLE OF INTERNET INTERMEDIARIES.”

OECD, 2 December. 2010, www.oecd.org/sti/ieconomy/48730817.pdf.

Tracy, Spencer. “Accelerating Job Creation in America: The Promise of High-Impact

Companies.” U.S. Small Business Administration, July. 2011,

www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/rs381tot.pdf.