Resolve to practice online understanding in the New Year

One of the most amazing things about our modern world is the ability for people to communicate their thoughts and ideas globally in a matter of seconds. The freedom the Internet has given us to spread knowledge is truly a miracle of our time, one which has already contributed to the spread of democracy around the world.

This freedom has given a powerful voice to those who previously could not speak out via platforms such as social media, blogs and even the comment sections on online news articles.

While this ability to share ideas is undoubtedly a great benefit to humanity, this new world of mass communication also carries with it some daunting challenges.

Among the issues courts and governments are currently grappling with are how to regulate dangerous speech online. The rise of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) has given new gravity to these discussions, as policy-makers try to strike a balance between our First Amendment right to free speech and the desire to control the spread of potentially deadly ideas.

We do not support the suppression of speech simply because it seems dangerous or offensive. No matter how threatening it might be for potential terrorists to communicate their desires to each other online, it’s far more dangerous for the government to snoop or even shut down the speech rights of its citizens. While it might seem prudent right now for the government to monitor and police the Internet for dangerous speech, such practices would likely have dire consequences for us all.

That being said, we’d like to issue a call to folks to police themselves in the coming New Year. Far too often, online forums become breeding grounds not for new ideas, but for hate, fear, anger and worse. One need look only as far as the Frontiersman’s Facebook page or our website to see countless examples of people using the comment sections to make personal attacks on each other. When the language becomes profane, libelous or abusive we will remove the comments, but in order to preserve speech freedoms we give people a pretty long leash about what they can say.

This often means many comments that are offensive, rude or downright dumb remain online. This is unfortunate, because often these comments devolve into endless streams of back-and-forth arguing that has little or nothing to do with the original story. This kind of behavior lends nothing to the discussion and, frankly, causes us all to lose a little bit of our compassion toward one another.

In the coming year, it is our sincere hope that people make an effort to tone things down online. Instead of hateful rhetoric or mean-spirited attacks, we would like to see the Internet used as a forum to debate and discuss ideas. Hopefully the New Year brings with it a new commitment to respect and empathy online. We have all the world’s knowledge at our fingertips; let’s use that power to spread good rather than to denigrate others.