What are your 8 Values of Free Expression?

 What are your 8 Values of Free Expression?

 

Overview

The eight values of free expression allow America to be the democracy that we see today. With these expressions, Americans can participate in political elections, talk back to the government, and rant on Twitter. These examples happen because we are given the eight values of free expression. In this post, I will talk about the Marketplace of Ideas and an example of how it is used currently and why I feel it is an essential free expression for people to use.

 

Marketplace of Ideas

 

John Milton’s suggestion of marketplace of ideas is known as the discovery of truth. John Milton wrote a book titled Areopagitica which responded to England’s Parliament to restrict licensing and censorship. Milton thinks that we should be able to read different things in the press and choose the right one based on reason without the government taking that ability away. For example, in 2020, China put into place social media censorship relating to the failure of the Chinese government to control the spread of the Coronavirus outbreak. Because of this, people in China did not know how to take the necessary precautions allowing the spread of the virus to be faster. The virus spreading quickly in China prevented the world from preparing how to respond to this new virus. 

 

 

Although the Chinese government started censoring their people because of the coronavirus, the American government has a well. When the coronavirus first started, I remember government telling people to stay home to prevent the virus from spreading; information was given via social media and news outlets. But that came with a cost: a new pandemic as formed, a pandemic of misinformation. With the increasing use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, millions of people have interacted in ways never seen before. Think about it this way. At the time of writing this blog, I have 1,055 "followers" on Instagram. If I make a post or share someone else's post, those 1,055 people can see it, whether that be correct or false information. Then those 1,055 people can share it, and now it has spread to thousands of other people off of just one post I made regardless of its fast or not. 

This phrase, a pandemic of misinformation, was used by the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a virtual press conference at UN headquarters in New York. He said that only "verified, scientific, fact-based news and analysis" should be taken in to combat this new pandemic of misinformation. Journalists are becoming victims to the constraints and restrictions put on them for just doing their job. 

 

 

 

I think the marketplace of ideas is important because people should speak freely on the internet. To me, there shouldn't be restrictions when putting things out on the internet. The truth will win at the end of the day. We should listen to the journalists doing their job and do our research when questioning a source instead of just believing anything on the internet.