On December 15, 1791 the First Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, including the rest of the Bill of Rights. This Amendment was to become one of the most valued and well known pieces of our ruling document.
The exact wording of the First Amendment is “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This crystal clear wording and how the courts have interpreted this phrasing over the years has been quite consistent, allowing people to do and say things that the mass majority of Americans would not support if it came to an actual vote.
Since the internet became widespread in the 2000’s, there have been many movements that seek to restrict the freedom of groups that do not agree with them.
Recently, both high schools and college campuses have been introduced to this new app called Yik Yak. For those who have not heard of the app, it is essentially an anonymous Twitter that fills your feed with “yaks” from people in your geographic area. It also has voting mechanism where one can upvote a “yak” they like and downvote one they do not.
“Now this discontent has spread to college campuses and in some places there are even campaigns to encourage students to stop using this app because of the “offensive” nature of some of the yaks. “
Unsurprisingly, ever since Yik Yak launched, it has faced serious criticism from both school administrators and those who embrace political correctness. Most of the criticisms from high school officials had to do with problems of bullying. The company found that these complaints were legitimate and so the company suspended service on school grounds.
Now this discontent has spread to college campuses and in some places there are even campaigns to encourage students to stop using this app because of the “offensive” nature of some of the yaks.
Firstly, to expect political correctness and general decency from an app that organizes people geographically and allows anonymous posts is beyond naïve.
This may sound grim but it is far from, as things like Yik Yak allows the everyday person to say whatever they want whether or not it is politically correct.
This allows for far more unrestricted freedom of speech than most other social media platforms. People that are perpetually offended by the content on Yik Yak have two options, either do not download the app, or vote and help form the community the way theywant it to be.
Another closely related topic is the controversial issue of internet neutrality which came onto the national scene when a certain company was using “deep packet inspection” to discriminate against people by slowing their internet connection if they were connected to gaming sites. In the spring of 2014, the issue became quite prominent as a result of the FCC taking a new rule under consideration that would establish net neutrality.
“Firstly, to expect political correctness and general decency from an app that organizes people geographically and allows people to post things anonymously is beyond naïve.”
Net neutrality needs to be made into law as it is of key importance if we wish to retain our right to free speech in both our real lives and in our online entertainment and communication.
Unless the FCC upholds our Constitution and the rights of the people, corporations can easily discriminate against sites and people that are in competition or in a disagreement with the Internet provider. These common sense regulations would stop corruption before it ever has a chance to rear its ugly head.
Believe it or not, both of the aforementioned issues are closely related as some prominent people in our society seem to believe that the internet is a place to be tamed and controlled but this is clearly just another attempt by supporters of big government to find some way to control this grand forum of free speech and channel it to suit their own interests.
-Andy Gladitch