The Internet has for a considerable significant time been the acid test of ‘freedom of speech.’ But at what price to large numbers of unsuspecting citizens? Sometimes celebrities are the targets of Internet video disclosures that are quickly propagated throughout the world by means of sites like YouTube, whose links are effortlessly promoted on social network profiles such as MySpace and Facebook. But nearly as often, celebrities are created by the uploading of private videos of ordinary individuals, which are then electronically disseminated and blogged and thus transmitted like wildfire to each end of the world. The infamy which results from many of these tapes or photos being spread so easily can be deeply upsetting to the personalities who are victimized by their being passed around. But who is to be held responsible? an individual can’t be held to the responsible simply for passing onward an email or putting up a public link to their Facebook profile.

The Internet and social networking sites are merely a more modern channel through which the diffusion of information has been made more accessible. As luck would have it, or fortunately, making every person with access to a computer a qualified journalist with the capacity to reach large numbers of people the globe over. So it is not the social networks that are to be answerable for this betrayal of personal rights, but the community at large itself. Social culture flourishes on the passing around of gossip and information sharing. So long as you are not the injured, you have no problems passing on that embarrassing video of a poor boy dancing around his room making believe to be a rebel fighter from Star Wars (The boy is at present in therapy and has given up school, on the off chance that you were wondering). Websites such as TMZ.com survive only because of human desire for tabloid trash and celebrity gossip.

Similarly, we must be aware of the Internet’s infinite possibility, and the nonviability of control over its material. In today’s times, one must be aware that anything they do could be on the Internet within seconds. With digital cameras, mobiles with movie-making capability and immediate access to YouTube and Facebook, your actions could be disseminated to your friends and strangers alike live-action. We must redefine what is intimate and what is public, as it is no longer prudent to assume that everything we do will stay within our control. Modern methods have a mind of its own, and the Internet is a typical of something that can quietly slip away from its original use and find many more purposes as long as the masses demand it.

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