What is the use of censorship for blogging?

Answer 1

The purpose of blogging is to express one's thoughts without any consequences, but many governments (including the United States) believe that certain statements are not deserving of protection. For example, if one were to blog that the president should be killed or that some celebrity ought to be murdered, that would not be protected under the First Amendment, and might cause criminal charges to be placed against the person who made the statement. In general, the governments in most democracies leave opinion blogs alone, even if the opinions expressed are not popular or are controversial-- as long the line is not crossed regarding threats of violence.

There are some people who believe that blogs deserve to be censored for bad language or for displaying racist/sexist/homophobic speech or images. This is controversial, because some First Amendment supporters believe even content that might be considered vulgar or offensive must not be censored. Often, it is advocacy groups made up of parents, educators, or members of the clergy, who believe children should be protected from vulgar and bigoted content and thus, they feel it is acceptable to exert some control over what can and cannot be blogged.

This is a topic that inspires very passionate and polarized views. The blogging community, understandably, does not like censorship of any kind; but the people who believe they are just protecting their kids have equally strong opinions on the topic. There will probably continue to be a push-pull dynamic, with attempts made to censor some controversial sites, and civil libertarians pushing back.