Free Speech in the Digital Age: Rights, Responsibilities, and Realities

Freedom of speech, as we all know, is one of the core fundamental human rights under the arms of a democratic republic, but through the years, experiences have led some people to raise eyebrows with questions we've come to encounter under the canopy of freedom of speech, such as: Are we suppose to respect everyone's opinion? Or if everyone should have unrestricted freedom to express themselves as they deem fit in any context? In this article, I'll be talking you through my thoughts on this and why.

There is this popular quote that says 'a close mouth is a close destiny', and to me this means that he who fails to talk when necessary might be driving towards a miserable and unfulfilling life, and that's because such a person would have to make do with whatever it's they get from others, since they won't flinch or complain about how other people's words or actions affect them.

To me, our voice is our power, and it's an effective tool that's over the years helped us make our stand known to those around us, stating our thoughts on situations and actions of others towards us or people around us. It's no news that, through the years, speaking out has helped correct loads of anomalies that would have cost us harm had we kept quiet.

But as time goes on, we've come to see questionable discussions that make one question the need for freedom of speech. You'll come to the social media platforms or press and see people talking irrationally and spitting words that's hurtful to their fellow, leading such victims into depression, inciting violence, and much more. At the end of the day, such speakers would hide under the canopy of freedom of speech, quoting it as one of their fundamental human rights in their bid to defend themselves from the consequences of their words.

Personal I believe and agree with the need for freedom of speech because that's an avenue for constructive conversation and intellectual diversity. What should be noted, though, is that respecting everyone's opinions and talking about matters doesn't necessarily equate to agreement with their perspective; what we just need to do is civilly disagree in a respectable manner that won't bring about any form of violence.

Freedom of speech plays a huge role in making lives and society a better place for everyone, but through the years it has also played a huge role in ruining the peace of society, as some have used it as a weapon to dehumanize others, invite violence, racism, and the like, to mention but a few.

And that's what brings me to my take on the need to hold everyone accountable for their words. Like someone once said, 'there's freedom of speech; freedom after speech is what can't be assured', although this speech can be translated into two different meanings: one as a threat to discourage people from speaking out and the other as a clear warning to weight your words before voicing them out, because if such words are bad, dehumanising, that isn't welcome by society, then your freedom thereafter can't be assured as you might be liable to face the full consequence of your words.

The advent of mass media and social media as revolutionaries communication, paving avenues for people to get their opinion across to a large audience instantaneously, and that has had loads of positive impact on the lives of people, and having information comes in handy and cheaply to the comfort of your room. Via this, many lives have been saved as first-hand information about natural disasters and other dangers around us can be aired to get us to warn and pursue survival strategies.

However, this has also had a negative impact on people's lives, especially when such In the hands of the wrong person, about a month ago, a popular gospel musician in my country posted the photo of her baby online, and someone from online published a statement saying: 'there's nothing anyone can tell him, that the baby looks like another musician more than he looks like her husband'. That statement goes beyond overboard and puts both musicians under the spotlight for having extramarital affairs.

Such statements, I believe, would make the husband have a second thought and start having a misunderstanding with his wife, because he might start seeing the child in a different light. To cut a long story short, the one who made such an arrogant statement online was invited to the police station to come present his evidence for altering such a statement after the musician wrote a petition against him.

At the end of the day, the man in question has no evidence and was seen in another video posted on his Facebook page begging the musician to forgive him, and that's after he was charged to court and sentenced to some months in prison for his words to destroy someone else's home and, as well, their reputation in society.

With that being said, I'll be bringing my take on this subject matter to a close, and in conclusion, I'll end this by saying I'm one hundred percent in agreement with upholding freedom of speech, but whoever is found guilty is spreading the wrong message that have negative impact on others, should be held accountable, there should be a level of civility, pursuit of truth, and accountability in how we pass our opinions across, so our messages won't be seen in another light, incite violence, or dehumanize others.

Also, I believe mass media and social media platforms should up their game in easily detecting what would incite violence that is being published on their platform, because if such is continually allowed to stay on air, then more havoc would come to light. So if such platforms continuously ignore regulating racial, discriminatory, and other means of wrong speech, then they should be warned, fined, or shut down for others to learn from.

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This is my entry for the day 3 of the #mayinleo prompt of the INLeo initiative, if you'd love to participate, you can read days about it in the announcement post.

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Thanks so much for your time. Have a wonderful day ahead and stay blessed.

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