Censorship is everywhere! Web3 liberates.

Introduction

Will there ever be total freedom? The fight for freedom which is observed in various areas of life is an indication of one ugly truth - censorship rules! Everyone dreams to live their life, to determine when to eat, sleep, travel or meet with loved ones. For many in our world today, it remains a dream to control their life because right now they cant. Someone else makes all these decisions that matter, so there is some element of censorship everywhere.

One interesting thing is that web3 is handing freedom back to everyone that should own it. The large scale of limitations imposed by others in all areas of life shows that web3 has some massive work in its hand. So far, there is huge progress to limit or even destroy censorship in finance, business, economy and other aspects of life.

Consider some current state of censorship in various industries and how web3 is creating freedom where it does not exist before.

Instances of censorship and Web3 liberation

Consider how censorship is exhibited in the following two industries:

Censorship in social media

Social media is awash with censorship. To begin there are so many written and unwritten rules about how to use a social media platform. The platform owners make the rules and enforce them. Such rules are not just about good behavior, but could be about the platforms political ideologies, economic outlook and other perspectives. Users are expected not to go beyond what the owners allow or they are kicked off.

For example, some social media platforms do not allow users to air their views or opinions especially if they are against that of the platform owners. They are prevented from taking sides with a group that the platform does not endorse. Any account that attempts to talk bad about the government of the day or expose their bad business is quickly taken down.

Censorship can mean that political opinions should not be expressed. Other wise they could be interpreted as inciting violence. Personal views could be seen as a direct attack on the platform owners. User content should never clash with the economic or business goals of the platform.

One great example of censorship based on economic interest was the purchase of X (formerly Twitter) by Elon Musk. Some time after the business was done, sweeping changes took place. Then came some heart-breaking instances of censorship. Some accounts with nice usernames were forcibly taken away from their original owners in an instant. They lost content and audience because the new owners of the platform have economic benefits they want to derive by taking those accounts.

The above are all instances of censorship that exist in the social media environment as we have them today.

Solution: Web3 social media

Web3 social media is built on the blockchain and designed to be censorship resistant. The blockchain always retains any data stored in it. This immutable feature which is inherited by social media platforms powered by blockchain, ensures that data cannot be removed, or modified in any form.

Web3 blockchain is never owned by any individual or business. Instead, it is powered by a community of users. One great example of web3 social media is Hive. Once a user signs up, the custody of account keys remain with the user. So the Hive platform does not store a copy of the passwords. Hence, no one can forcibly seize any accounts from anyone. On Hive, its not you key, its not your crypto. This simply means that only the person with the keys have full custody of the account and its assets.

Web3 social media like Hive does not just give users full right to their account, content is also not censored. You view counts and is appreciated even if it is not public opinion. Users content are on published on the blockchain which is both immutable and a distributed system. Thus, everyone on web3 social media is free to publish content without fear of being censored or threats of being banned.

Web3 social media thus liberates users from the shackles of censorship seen in todays traditional social media platforms. Wouldn't you rather accept to be free?

Censorship in government

Perhaps one sector where censorship is very well pronounced is in government. Almost every economic activity in each country is directly controlled by government legislation. While that could be for the good of citizens, sometimes it could be severely limiting. Consider the following two areas where censorship in government is obvious:

• Finance: The government owns the central bank and through it, controls all other banks in the control. Almost every country has its central bank. The Central bank make laws that all commercial banks must abide by in order not to have their licenses taken away.

The government censors finance through the banking system, making laws that govern financial activities. Such laws limit what anybody using the financial system could do. It sometimes include how much foreign exchange to hold or transact, minimum daily transaction volume, minimum account balance, countries to directly transact with, and other laws. These are examples where financial laws issued by the government through central banks, are used to censor transaction in the banking system.

• Media: Many governments try to control the nature and amount of information to the public through media houses. The government also gives licenses to media organization with clear guidelines on what should not be presented. Public outcries against the government are usually censored. Politicians usually ban media houses from publishing content against the ruling parties.

A media organization that attacks the government or allows its programs to be used by the public to criticize the government usually have their publishing rights taken from them. In some countries, the government retains the full right to operate media houses, ensuring that only vetted content are allowed to be broadcasted.

The internet is free in most places. But in some countries, it is censored by the government. Only websites allowed by the government are allowed in the space. Others are blacklisted and banned. Sometimes, some governments puts their country offline so that citizens can not stage protests online or publish cases of government abuse to the outside world.

The above are examples of how the government censors the public through the media.

Solution: Decentralized finance and Content platforms

Defi is one powerful web3 tool that is currently beating government censorship through banks. Defi allows users free access to financial products without the bottlenecks of traditional finance.

Through defi, users could open crypto wallets that are comparable to bank accounts. Then they could access finance products like obtain loans, invest through staking and provision of liquidity, participate in community governance, etc.

Defi makes financial inclusion possible. Users from all over the world could participate in finance and do transactions even if they are not financially literate, own an IDs or have a good credit history. Through defi, cross-border transactions could happen without the parties knowing each other or being physically present. Defi not only fights government censorship, but it expanded the limits of financial services, making it possible to do transactions that were not possible before.

When it comes to controlling the media, web3 news and content publishing platforms allow the community to share and publish information that cannot be altered or removed. As such, new content is not restricted or controlled by any single person. Instead, the community published raw news content the way it is and for the consumption of everyone. This way, government fails to censor the news through media organizations.

Conclusion

Censorship limits freedom and makes it difficult for users to reach their full potentials. Censorship does not allow people to express their selves. Instead, they are limited to the rules of the platforms or organization. But Web3 empowers people and lets them air their views. both in finance and in the area of media, users are free to share content, they own their data and they have freedom of expression.