Censorship? More like "censorsh*t," am I right? Censorship is one of those topics we do not hear about too often, but when we do, we are furious.
A fundamental concept of the First Amendment, freedom of speech is an American fan favorite that we pride ourselves on.
Recently, censorship has been prominent in the news in the United States and countries around the world. Here at home, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) has been the ultimate threat of an Internet troll for quite some time.
It was created in the hope of stopping online trafficking in counterfeiting and piracy.
If enacted, it will not "shut down the internet" like every middle schooler on Tumblr thought, but it will block access to sites that allow copyright violated or pirated downloading and linking.
So what does that mean? There would be no Facebook, YouTube, MediaFire, SoundCloud, Twitter, DropBox or any other site that can be targeted as a place where online piracy could take place.
No Twitter? But I put jokes up there. It's my lifeline (@MaeveMcDonough #shamelessplug).
Many blogs would also be shut down. Everyone would be responsible for what they put on their blog or website and if it does have copyright infringement, consider it gone. This threat to our right to be an Internet dweller should make us realize how lucky we really are.
In Cuba this week, Project Censored, an American nonprofit organization dedicated to media criticism and investigative journalism, made its case to a conference of Cuban authors and journalists hosted by Fidel Castro.
It's been more than 50 years since a bad word about Cuba was uttered in any sort of national media. After Project Censored's failed conference, it's going to stay that way.
In Pakistan, the government recently published a public document meant for tightening the restriction through "development, deployment and operation of a national-level URL filtering and blocking system," according to the country's Internet Filtering and URL Blocking System Request for Proposal.
This $10,000,000 project is is aimed toward upholding public morality, preventing blasphemy and protecting national security by blocking pornographic sites as well as popular sites like Facebook and YouTube.
But the government can't keep up with the growing Internet, so now they want to build an automatic blocking and filtering system, similar to the "Great Firewall of China."
The outrage here is that the government has censored so publically, creating firestorm of free-speech advocates and protestors.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not rooting for SOPA. Pay for music? Please. It's 2012. But do we really have it all that bad? Countries around the world will send you to prison for insulting the government, while here in America, we have all seen the meme "Scumbag America."
We all resent the dark, infamous day on which Limewire was shut down forever, but we are going to hate the day Wikipedia is gone even more.
Who's going to write our papers? So what can we do to fix this? Pay the $1.29 to download "Call Me Maybe" legally. Cite that famous quote on your blog. We all know you didn't say it.
Yes, these are small, tedious details. But if everyone tries just a little bit harder, a difference can be made. And as for SOPA? Only time will tell.
— McDonough is a freshman from Glen Ellyn, Ill., majoring in communications. opinion@thedepauw.com