EOTO 2 Reaction

When listening to the other presentations, I discovered so much key information that promotes me to learn more about the different aspects of the government. 

One of the key concepts that stood out to me was Government Censorship. This is when the government holds back information from the citizens.

The First Amendment protects the freedom of speech and the freedom of press for all citizens, which are essential elements of democracy. Additionally, the government does not usually restrict and censor materials. However, if they do, depending on the situation, it can be considered a violation of the Bill of Rights. 

The most interesting part of the presentation on Government Censorship was "The Twitter Files" explanation. The Twitter Files were a series of documents that Elon Musk revealed when he took over X, formally know as Twitter. These files showed high interactions between government officials and twitter. 

Some of the information released in the files included, "thousands of internal documents, including many Slack discussions, between Twitter employees about their content moderation decisions."

In an Interview with CBS, Musk also said he wants to show, "what really happened behind the scenes regarding content moderation decisions at the social media company before he bought it in October."

This censorship had major impacts on Free Speech, because it raised questions on what was being moderated and what was being withheld. 

Something that I would like to learn more about is what information was withheld during the January 6th Insurrection. After the invasion of the Capital, Former President Trump was banned from the app for the role he played. Was there discussions prior to his ban, if so what did they look like? 

The other presentation that intrigued me was "Cord Cutting". Cord Cutting is defined as "reducing or eliminating public funding for traditional media in favor of private platforms."

Cord Cutting is something that we are seeing a lot more now with all of the advancements in media. Cord Cutting has both positive and negative effects. Some of the positive effects include more cost effective platforms, allowing for the funds to be redirected to places of need. It also allows for more media diversity, giving more of a broader range and perspective.

As with anything, there are negatives to it as well. One of negatives include the risk of declining and impartial news. These places will now prioritize profit over public interest possibly leading to a downfall as well.