The questions have been posed, “Should Twitter, as an immediate
publication platform, take steps to remove or censor graphic content? And, as an autonomous, third-party commercial
enterprise, is Twitter’s oversight of posted content ethical?”
Terminology
To answer
this, I first have to define graphic content.
“The
Twitter Rules” describes graphic content as being pornographic or excessively
violent (Twitter, n.d.). The social
media site prohibits the use of this type of content in a user’s profile image
or header image (Twitter, n.d.).
However, they “may allow some forms of graphic content in Tweets marked
as sensitive media (Twitter, n.d).” And
lastly, they also forbid “gratuitous images of death” (Twitter, 2015).
While this
is helpful, I must also understand the meanings of “pornographic” and “excessively
violent” in order to be able to identify content of this nature. Because Twitter does not clarify their interpretation
of these terms, I turn to the all-knowing Google search engine.
Here, the
first search result for “what is pornography” was a basic definition:
Pornography is printed or visual material containing the explicit description
or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate erotic rather
than aesthetic or emotional feelings. Furthermore,
no exact results populated from my search for “what is the definition of
excessive violence…..”
Breaking the Questions Down
Should Twitter take steps to remove
pornographic content?
My answer
to this is ‘no,’ unless the images involve a minor child or an incapacitated
adult.
· Online child pornography is strictly
covered by the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 (CPPA), which has very
clear guidelines. And please note that what
these guidelines do not prohibit are
images of children just because they are naked.
Thus, the candid bathtub pictures that seem to be an inherent part of
childhood would not need to be excluded.
· Incapacitated adults (even if the
incapacity is self-inflicted), cannot truly consent to being included in a
pornographic images.
Should Twitter take steps to remove
content that depicts excessive violence?
May answer
to this is also ‘no,’ with no caveats.
The Rationale
Let the
user beware. If one choses to
participate on an open media forum, one should expect the unexpected.
It’s like
entering a public park. There are basic
rules governing how everyone should behave, but the rules cannot include all behaviors; and there will always be
people who do not follow the rules. It’s
a risk you take by going out in public (a.k.a. participating in social
media).
It should
also be noted that Twitter is rated Mature-17, so young children shouldn’t be
using the site. This squashes the
argument that children may see something disturbing. Parents shouldn’t let their children use this
social media site. Period.
For me, the
internet (along with television, radio, magazines, etc.) has reached the point
of no return; and as such, every user is responsible for taking measures to
protect their individual sensitivities. This
means the user is ultimately responsible for the items they view. If you follow someone and they post something
graphic, stop following them. Don’t open
the link. Don’t read the article. If you’re
getting random graphic posts that were not solicited and they offend you, stop
using Twitter.
As a
society, we have tolerated and/or encouraged so much offensive content that we
have become desensitized and oblivious to the extent that this type of content
has become the “norm.” And while we
started accepting foul language, sexual images and violent actions into our everyday
entertainment regime, we didn’t notice that our characters were changing for
the worse. We lost our sense of
integrity as we were groveling for more sensational media content.
However,
Twitter is a publicly traded company. So
if their leadership determines that it is the best interest of their company to
ban graphic content because of the values of the organization, or because they
fear the financial consequences otherwise, then that is their prerogative. But
I feel the decision is solely theirs, and it should not be dictated by
regulators or demanded by users.
If users
don’t like the content to which they are exposed, they should ban Twitter until
the rules change. Otherwise, no reforms
to our media content will ever occur, because almost no one has the energy, the
desire or the patience to define his or her values and then stick to them………
Reference
Twitter. (n.d.)
How can we help?: The Twitter
Rules. Retrieved on June 5, 2016
from https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311.
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