Importance of Regulating The Internet

Increasingly, the internet has turned out as a haven of all sort of activities ranging from useful ones such as academic and business-oriented activities to harmful events such as terrorism, human traffic, and financial frauds. In the preamble of her journal “Impossible to Regulate? Social Media, Terrorists and the Role of UN”, Wu states that terrorists post beheading of journalists online while also securities officers have tracked numerous people joining terrorist groups over the internet and particularly the social media (Wu, 2015). Social media platforms form a considerable section of the internet that they cannot be excluded from any debate involving the latter. Towards the end of 2017, the United Kingdom government through its council of ministers embarked on creating policies that would ensure that the internet is regulated. Regulation of the internet would entail censoring the destructive content that one can upload and view with a given jurisdiction (León, 2017). The open policy of the internet has extensively exposed the society to significant destructive content which even children can access. In this regard, the paper purposes to research on the benefits of regulating the internet which will include managing discrimination, data privacy, security, and consent. Also, the study will discuss the contrary stance that regulating the internet will restrict the flow of information among the users of the internet.

Social media as an internet-based innovation has revolutionized the way members of the societies interact. People can share information, ideas and other content such as videos with people who are far away from them. Notably, the internet has several benefits which include quick reproduction and transmission of data, user-friendly interfaces, and open access (Peppet, 2014). However, global terrorist groups have taken advantage of social media which they use to propagate their agenda through activities such as posting their beheadings and recruiting followers. Consequently, social media and thus the internet has contributed to the growth of terrorist networks all over the world (Wu, 2015). In this regard, creating policies which target the regulation of the internet will effectively aid in curbing the spread of terrorism thus saving lives. Besides, the owners of internet platforms should ensure that data harvested from their sites do not fall into unauthorized persons such as hackers and recruiters of terrorist groups (Cano, 2016). Immediate tracking and censoring of damaging information from suspected members of groups such as ISIS will ensure that the majority of the users do not get exposed to such materials.

Often, internet platforms such as social media sites and blogs become instruments of propagating hatred and discrimination. Across all internet platforms, cyberbullying is rife, and it amounts to cyber terrorism. The internet is a perfect platform for spreading racist ideologies. Regardless of the web having numerous benefits, it can cause untold suffering to children and vulnerable persons (León, 2017). Concerning this, policies which attempt to protect internet users from bullies and racist people would be a necessary action. One way of ensuring that the internet is not used to propagate hatred is to regulate the service providers (Peppet, 2014). The providers will be required to track content that is circulating in their network and report instances of breach of internet laws to the relevant authorities. Effectively cases of cyberbullying triggered suicides, drug abuses and diseases such as depression and blood pressure would significantly decrease. Similar to terrorism, discrimination and racism can destroy societal integration whereby the victims develop queer antisocial tendencies.

On the downside, studies evidence that regulating the internet will have a restricting impact on the flow of information including its exchange. Regulatory measures would ensure that topics connected to areas perceived as destructive to the well being of the society are flagged as inappropriate (Wu, 2015). Therefore, the policies would prevent people from expressing themselves altering the way information is handled on the internet. The information would become elusive effectively turning the society into an ignorant one. Departing from this notion, useful information will not be affected by the regulations. Moreover, the policies should aim at identifying content which beyond reasonable doubt that it contravenes the set standards (Griffin, 2017). In the era of artificial intelligence and machine learning, developing, executing and evaluating the impact of internet regulatory mechanism should be an achievable endeavor.

In conclusion, the internet has its benefits and limitations. On the internet one can access a wide variety of information both destructive and constructive. However, damaging information poses considerable risks to users who include both juveniles and those who have reached the age of majority. It is, therefore, necessary for governments and the relevant agencies to constitute regulatory policies which curb the negative aspects of the internet. Various reasons have been proposed as to why the internet should be regulated. Even though the internet converts the world into a global village, terrorists have taken advantage of the internet to advance their agenda. Besides, the internet is a platform where bullying and racism are being propagated. These are among the primary reasons that explain why the internet should be regulated. However, a section of academicians argues that imposing regulatory measures on the internet will affect the flow of vital information. The contemporary technological developments, principally in the field of artificial technology, can adequately address these concerns. In this regard, the position of this research essay is that instituting regulatory measures on the use of the internet is an essential measure.