People’s freedom of expression refers to their ability to express themselves and take positions on other people’s views without fear of retaliation from others. In addition, freedom of expression is an entitlement protected through the first constitutional amendment (Maris, 2018). Restricting or penalizing freedom of expression is thus a negative issue because it confines the population of truth, as well as rationality, questioning, and the ability of people to think independently and express their thoughts (Chetty & Alathur, 2018). The main research question is to determine whether punishing free expression is despotic and should not be encouraged in any case or at any time, irrespective of whether it offends others. As for me, freedom of speech should be upheld as long as it does not infringe upon the basic human rights of others.
The freedom to express and post opinions, as an essential augmentation of the liberty to think and feel, is a fundamental component of human liberty. Posting opinions as part of the inward domain of consciousness cannot harm others. Maris acknowledges that free speech may impact others, but it is nearly indistinguishable from it, being almost as important as freedom of thought and based on similar grounds (2018). However, for the citizenry to have unrestricted freedom of expression, the population must first understand the difference between freedom of expression and oppression and intolerance. Such understanding is essential because numerous people use their right to free expression to offend, prejudice, and hide their hatred of certain groups of people. Abuse of freedom of speech is detrimental and adds nothing positive to the world (Maris, 2018). As a result, one can conclude that penalizing freedom of expression harms the population; however, the population must understand the difference between opinion, hate speech, and intolerance.
References
Chetty, N., & Alathur, S. (2018). Hate speech review in the context of online social networks.Aggression and Violent Behavior, 40, 108–118. Web.
Maris, C. (2018). Close the borders! Dutch intolerance and freedom of speech.Tolerance: Experiments with Freedom in the Netherlands, 124, 335–360. Web.