Introduction
Since the last century, the Internet has gradually evolved into an essential global information infrastructure, even penetrating various social fields of human society such as politics, economy, trade, culture, and education. (Mifsud Bonnici, 2005) However, while people enjoy the convenience of the Internet, they also have to face the infringement and negative impact of many harmful information on the Internet. The issue of how to stop bullying, harassment, violent content, hate, pornography, and other harmful content from circulating on digital platforms and how to control insufficient information has become an important issue of concern to people and governments worldwide. This article will propose some preventive measures and methods for comprehensively managing harmful information on the Internet based on the theory of governance of harmful information on the Internet by analyzing the causes of harmful information on the Internet and the harm and impact it brings.
What does harmful content on the Internet bring?
Harmful information on the Internet can have a severe negative impact on all aspects of society. First, harmful information on the Internet, such as violent and pornographic information, is essential in inducing crime. Bloody and violent images often have a visual and auditory impact on people, leading to high emotional tension, more dramatic emotional changes, aggression, and an increased propensity for violence, all of which can induce criminal behavior. For example, on August 3, 2019, a gunman interrogated by police after killing 22 people and wounding 24 others at a Walmart supermarket in Texas, USA, referred to scenes from the violent games he often played. Furthermore, the spread of pornographic information may likewise lure people to the path of crime. Second, harmful information on the Internet also endangers the market economic order to a certain extent. For example, some fraudulent gambling and online marketing information often involve the economic interests of a particular person or group of people, who will publish harmful information online to mislead and deceive the general public and disrupt the stable market economy to make profits and money. (Wall, 2001) This harmful information will undermine Internet users’ trust in online shopping, online payment, and Internet economy-related industries, which will affect the healthy development of the whole Internet in the long run. Finally, harmful information on the Internet can lead to a lack of moral values. Because the Internet has not yet fully formed a systematic legal and moral code, and the Internet has the characteristics of anonymity and virtual, some Internet users in the virtual world will be free to publish hate, bullying, and harassing speech without having to bear the relevant legal responsibility and moral condemnation. Once this culture and Internet atmosphere is formed, it will influence and change other Internet users and cause severe damage to the whole Internet environment, leading to a lack of people’s moral values and harm real society.
Causes and preventive measures
The main reasons for the generation of harmful information on the Internet are the drive of commercial interests, lax supervision of Internet platforms, and the weak legal awareness and lack of moral values of some Internet users. For the above reasons, we should use a variety of effective measures to combat and curb harmful information on the Internet in a targeted manner.
From the level of Internet platform management, Internet platforms must act as the maker, interpreter, and arbiter of Internet norms. (Gillespie, 2018) Internet platforms can impose rules on Internet users to some extent or use software with filtering capabilities or search engine information filtering systems to effectively filter and block online information. The vast majority of social media content uploaded by users requires human intervention for it to be filtered appropriately. (Roberts, 2019) This approach can defend against a large amount of harmful information on the Internet for Internet users and automatically filter out beneficial information. However, many people believe this information filtering system has apparent flaws when filtering URLs because harmful information websites change and set many URLs from time to time. When the information filtering system is not updated in time, it will cause the failure of harmful information blocking. Nevertheless, this situation can be solved and handled by another kind of intelligent analysis technology of page content, which can analyze and judge the content and nature of the opened network information in real-time. This method can efficiently and accurately block and filter out harmful information on the Internet, which is the mainstream technology of network information filtering in the future.
From the level of the rule of law construction, we should take the initiative to take severe measures to combat harmful information on the Internet effectively. Relevant departments of national governments should strictly punish the creators and disseminators of harmful information on the Internet through legislation and law enforcement and impose economic sanctions and even criminal liability on individuals and groups who publish harmful information. For example, under the Singapore government’s new proposed Internet rules, social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter will soon be legally required to implement safety standards and content review procedures to minimize the risk of users being exposed to harmful information on the Internet. They will also be required to ensure additional safeguards for users under 18, including helping them or their parents minimize exposure to inappropriate content, such as sexual or violent videos, and unwanted interactive messages, such as online stalking and harassment. Some people believe that harmful information on the Internet is enormous and hidden, so it is difficult for the relevant government departments to take the first remedial measures against it. However, the relevant departments can also set up a complete reporting system and reward system to mobilize all Internet users to monitor the Internet ecological environment so that the power of the masses is launched twice as effectively.
From the level of network spiritual civilization and moral construction, we should not only strengthen Internet users’ network moral education, guide Internet users to resist harmful information on the Internet actively, but also continuously launch new healthy and harmless network products to meet the spiritual needs of network users. However, there is a view that the Internet is a fictional community. What happens on the Internet does not affect people’s real life, and harmful information on the Internet does not cause substantial harm or negative impact. However, in fact, the Internet space is an extension of real society, a reproduction of social relations, social interests, and social roles on the network. To create the spirit and morality of Internet civilization and build a healthy and positive Internet environment together is the goal that each of us Internet users needs to join hands to work together, and it is also the responsibility and obligation of each of us Internet users.
Conclusion
In today’s era of booming Internet technology, the Internet has become an important venue for cultural dissemination and an effective tool for people to obtain valuable information and exchange ideas and opinions. However, the Internet is also being used by predators and other unscrupulous elements to carry out illegal and harmful activities unprecedentedly. The spread of such harmful information on the Internet has caused not only bad effects on society but also psychological and moral damage to the general public. Based on the theory of Internet harmful information governance, this paper analyzes the causes of harmful information on the Internet and the harm and impact it brings, and also presents some insights and preventive measures for the comprehensive governance of harmful information on the Internet, and also proposes the necessity of comprehensive governance of harmful information on the Internet. We believe that if we can mobilize the power of the whole society, from government departments down to the general public, to jointly establish a set of a multi-faceted, long-term effective mechanisms to rectify insufficient information, vigorously develop and innovate information filtering system technology, improve the laws and regulations of the network society, and strengthen the construction of network spiritual civilization and morality, we will be able to work together to fundamentally eliminate the destructive influence of harmful information on the Internet and jointly Create a clean, harmonious, positive, healthy and peaceful Internet environment and social environment.
Reference list:
Gillespie, T. (2019). All Platforms Moderate. In Custodians of the Internet (pp. 1–23). Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300235029-001
Mifsud Bonnici, J., & de vey Mestdagh, C. (2005). Right Vision, Wrong Expectations: The European Union and Self-regulation of Harmful Internet Content. Information & Communications Technology Law, 14(2), 133–149. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600830500042665
Roberts, S. T. (2019). Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media. Yale University Press.
Wall, D. (2001). Cybercrimes and the Internet. In CRIME AND THE INTERNET (pp. 1–17).
Kurohi, R., & Low, D. (2022, June 20). Social media platforms to remove harmful content, add safeguards under S’pore’s proposed rules | The Straits Times. Www.straitstimes.com; The Straitstimes. https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/tech-news/social-media-platforms-to-remove-harmful-content-add-safeguards-for-young-under-spores-internet-rules
Lalani, F., & Li, C. (2020, January 13). How to help slow the spread of harmful content online. World Economic Forum; World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/harmful-content-proliferated-online/
