Blog #4: First Amendment language

 Censorship and the First Amendment

Recently in my Law Crime and National Security course I learned about the spread of disinformation. The protection of the first amendment protects the freedom of speech, religion, press assembly and petition. While the spread of disinformation throughout the media itself does not violate the First Amendment, the idea of the government wanting to censor computer platforms conflicts with the First Amendment rights.

The First Amendment is in the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution which is a fundamental personal right, meaning it is the strongest type of right. While the platform is able to monitor posts and if a post is flagged enough, it will be removed, the government is unable to interact with the posts on the platform. In 2017, a case where Q-ANON, a domestic extremist organization, began spreading disinformation about Hilary Clinton on Reddit which ultimately led to the removal of Q-ANON supporters on Reddit.

If the platforms themselves can review and decide what they want or don’t want on their platform, is this violating our freedom of speech? Should the government get involved with this censorship on social media? This can also take away our freedom of expression due to not being able to express or opinions. Any platform can take this information and decide to favor any information they like such as political views.

This argument has been surfacing across the United States for many years now, but how do we create a program that monitors and filters out disinformation without violating our first amendment right?  We could come up with a way to have the government intervene so that no one is able to favor a party, but this requires U.S. Citizens to give up their right to speech on online platforms. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is constantly checking these platforms to monitor for any extremist threats to prevent them before they occur, another issue with this censorship program is if you take this away the extremist organizations will not use social media to communicate and the government will be unable to prevent these attacks, as they will not know about them.

So, what should we do? I wish I had an answer. All I can say is that it is a battle of losing our First Amendment rights online, or protecting America from the spread of disinformation. I think it is more important to protect our country, but I think there must be an option created that doesn’t infringe upon our first amendment right. Until the government comes up with a way to do that, this issue will prevail.

Blog #3: 8 Values of Expression

 Values of Expression

This quote relates to my favorite value of expression: Individual Self-Fulfillment, or Self-actualization.

The First Amendment from the U.S. Constitution gives American’s the freedom of expression. This means that individuals have the freedom to express themselves to find themselves. Expression gives you the right to hold opinions and express them freely without interference of others. This allows for the creation of identity, and it becomes involved with the ideas of human dignity, human agency and autonomy.

So, what does this mean? Let’s start with definitions and their philosophies:

IDENTITY

The creation of identity means that through different life experiences, relationships and connections each individual has a different perception or outlook on life which constructs their own representation of thoughts or emotions in an expressive way.  Individual identity is important in society because it helps with making decisions and know how to behave in the ways that one perceives as right because of their wisdom from the past. 

HUMAN DIGNITY

Human Dignity is the recognition that all human beings possess a special value intrinsic to their humanity and are worthy of respect because they are humans. An intrinsic value defined in social ethics means that people are doing the right thing for their own sake and not for the avoidance of a consequence.  Every person believes that they should be treated ethically because of their inherent and inalienable rights. This is an idea that is most often emphasized in the theory of Libertarianism. 

Libertarians such as John Locke and Robert Nozick focus on the idea that they should seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom emphasizing free association, freedom of choice, individualism which connects with human dignity and voluntary association.

HUMAN AGENCY

Human Agency is the capacity for humans to make choices and to impose those choices to the world. There’s a moral component to every situation, and human agency is invested in these moral components. If a situation is a consequence of one’s decision, one may have to apply judgments of value to the consequences and realize that they have to be responsible for the decision made. 

AUTONOMY

Autonomy is defined as the quality or state of being self-governed, this means that the government does not get a say allowing for self-directing freedom and moral independence. Personal autonomy is a similar concept; however, it relates to the idea that once has the capacity to decide for oneself and pursue a course of action in one’s life. Emmanuel Kant’s moral philosophy of autonomy emerges from the Enlightenment. Kant focuses on the idea that individuals should have the power to use their own reason and understanding to make decisions without the guidance of others. 

There are eight different values of free expression, and each of these values are respected and equally important. Without the First Amendment, these values would not exist. There are places within the world where there is no freedom to express yourself. These small aspects that we use every day such as the freedom of expression are often taken for granted, and many people don’t realize when they exhibit the right with every decision that they make. 

The freedom of expression is powerful especially when you have to figure out who you are as a person. Personally, if I was not able to express myself some of my relationships, friendships and situations that have shaped me as a person may not have occurred and I would be different in many different ways. I have gained wisdom from my experience in the world, and if I had to give this value up, I would be devastated because I would not be able to learn as much as I have.

BLOG #2: SCOTUS

SCOTUS

The United states uses a dual system of courts which is split into state and federal jurisdictions. The Supreme Court or as it is also known SCOTUS is a part of the United States’ justice system. It is the highest court in the federal courts system. After reading the article on history.com, I learned new information on the Supreme Court. 

Most of the information I learned from this article consists of the information on the member of the Supreme Court. I did not know that article three in the constitution was what began the process of establishing the Supreme Court. The first thing that I was intrigued by is that over the years they changed the number of members from five through ten, six times over the years; however, most recently congress set the seat at nine and that is where it has remained. The nine current members are chief of justice John Roberts, Jr. and associate justices Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Brett M. Kavanaugh, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch.

I was most surprised by the fact that the members of the supreme court serve from the time that they are inducted after being approved by the U.S. Senate until they either die or retire. This length of time has been at the longest 34 years. This record holder was Chief Justice John Marshall who handled the case of Marbury v. Madison.

The most important take-away from this article about the Supreme court is how the justices are selected and what the purpose of the Supreme court is. The selection process of justices is done through nomination of the president and approval or denial by the U.S. Senate. Their responsibility is to evaluate the constitutionality of all the laws within the united states because they have ultimate jurisdiction over all the laws.

 This article opened my eyes and gave me a better understanding of exactly what the Supreme Court is responsible for. I knew they handled cases pertaining unconstitutionality. Originally, I thought they were selected by the people of the U.S. but my thoughts now on the Supreme Court have shifted and I give them more credit because if both the president and U.S. senate have to approve of the justice nominee, they have to be coming from a credible background, 

Blog #1: Sources

 My TOP 5 News Sources

1.    Instagram

I use social media often for getting short updates on what is going on in the news. Most commonly, I will use Instagram because it is easy for me to navigate. I use Instagram almost every day and I am able to get news while catching up on the lives of my family friends and peers. As a Criminal Justice student, I have found that there are some issues with getting news from Instagram. One is that it filters out interests with certain mathematical formulas which causes only like-minded people to be brought together. This leads to no new viewpoints being brought in and easily allows people to believe everything read on Instagram such as disinformation which is a prominent problem in this generation.

2. Snapchat Discover

Sticking with the topic of Social Media, I use Snapchat discover. I really enjoy this because I learn a lot from ten-second videos that quickly catch me up on what is going on in the world as of the last 24 hours. Most news sources today focus a lot on politics and I do believe that is important in society to educate the youth, but I also think that Snapchat is a good source because there are many different stories which can focus on other information such as what is going on in the world of celebrities, the media industry and updating the viewers on information worldwide not just in the US.

3. Fox News

For political news I often watch Fox News, it has always been the news station in my house hold. They are a counterbalance to liberal, and progressive ideologies. However, you need to know what those people are thinking too so it’s helpful to read their views as well to have a healthy balanced perspective and argument. People also need to recognize all news stations, including Fox News, are programs with personalities with opinions who editorialize with exaggeration to keep and grow their audience. 

4. Apple News

I often do not choose to look at apple news, but I get notifications that pop up on my laptop or phone from time to time which interests me enough to take a peek on what is happening in the world. I like this source because it is not focused only on the United States. Apple news gives updates on a larger scale and big events that happen in other countries as well as events occurring in the united states.

5. The Ben Shapiro Show

My all-time favorite news source for political information especially is the Ben Shapiro Show. The host of this podcast, Ben Shapiro, is a republican however he will agree with democrats as well. What is more important for him is to get the information out, he only uses facts even if it goes against his political view. He also plays real news clips and he analyzes or breaks down false truths which is also known as “fake news”. He is all about the facts and does not fall into the media’s narrative regardless if it’s on the right or left point of view.