The Internet and Cancellation Culture: The Impact of the Public Opinion on the Exercise of the Individual Right to Freedom of Expression

The Network Society and the Value of Information

It is not new that since the 1970s, the world has undergone a major transformation with the advent of the Internet. Initially conceived for scientific purposes, aiming to facilitate the work and communication carried out in the laboratory, the internet changed the way of man to communicate, allowing the expansion and speed in the sharing of information. The emergence of computers was followed by the process of evolution from the modern to the post-modern phase, characterized by the importance given to the virtual relationships since then experienced in the digital environment. As PRATES, 2015 says: “One of the main characteristics of the Post-Modern Society is the lack of a full order, but the emergence of various orders and leaders, leading individuals to an unnerving feeling of uncertainty Opinion and full anxiety”.

The so-called Information Society advocates the need for everyone to be interconnected through the world wide web, allowing communication and, consequently, instantaneous passing on of events, opinions and impressions about it. This caused the information to have a decisive weight in social transformations, considering that, if before they took a long time to circulate, today it is practically transmitted as soon as it happens.

It is perceived that the information started, therefore, to have immeasurable value given the value that it can assume in an environment such as the economic one, where the information can cause astronomical gains or losses in a fraction of seconds, as it happens in the Stock Exchange when it oscillates due to daily information about the economy of a specific country or company. It is certain that today, arguably, information plays an important role in life in society, marked by the need to be connected and consequently participate in the virtual environment, the stage of modern social relations. Also according to PRATES, 2015: “It appears, therefore, that the Internet is the medium of communication that has a high audience rate and over the years it has been present in the lives of the citizens of the 21st century as a necessary and indispensable tool”.

So indispensable, that it deserves special attention by legal professionals, considering that in that virtual environment, constitutional stature rights are often put to the test. It is that, in order to disseminate information first, a valuable source for obtaining economic and financial gains, some users end up exacerbating freedom of expression, which may end up violating rights to honor.