Why Censorship Is Bad

Why Censorship Is Bad

An Essay On The Dangers Of Censorship

Hello everyone. We keep seeing a lot of takes online (mainly Twitter and TikTok) talking about how there needs to be censorship on taboo subjects. We wanted to share some reasons why that may not be as great an idea as you may think.

The taboo subjects now adays are usually sexual in nature. Kinks, incest, loli/shota, etc, a lot of people want to ban. A talking point we've heard a few times is that if people see this stuff in fiction then they'll start to like it and change the way their brain is wired. This is THE EXACT talking points conservatives had when videos games first came out, calling them violent and the cause of school shootings. More importantly for this essay, this is what happened as well when movies first came out.

When movies first came out there was an outcry from the public to have more moral films. In fear of both loosing an audience and being censored by the government (as movies were too new to be protected by law) film studios adopted The Hays Code, self censorship basically. The Hays Code censored the stuff people wanted gone sure, extreme violence, sex, excessive use of drugs, but that's not where the censorship stopped.

Amongst things banned in The Hays Code were queer people / relationships, and interracial relationships. When you open the floodgates to censorship, who decides what's moral and what's not? This is exactly what would happen again. You say no sex, the law may hear no queers. And lately, they'd sure love that opportunity!

So what do we do instead? It's completely fair if you're triggered by certain subjects in media or just plain old don't want to see them. That's fine. What people can do to help is properly tag stuff. For example the tag system in AO3 is there for a reason, USE IT. If you see someone online making something you don't like, block them, but don't harass them. You have a right to block them, just as they have a right to create. Trigger warnings have become a bit more common place beyond fanfiction too. They're in some books, shows, and video games now.

Censorship is a slippery slope, one that in our current day we really don't need. Don't let the government have more tools to erase you.