Pakistan's literacy rate is 55%, awaam is literally jaahil. Even most of our so called elite is unable to exercise critical thinking skills.
Anyone can come, give a good sounding speech with half-truths, and instigate riots and terrorist attacks. Afghani and Indian twitter warriors have realised this. Nationalist Socialist terror groups have also realised it.
Mahrang is the next Malala; While Malala is sipping drinks with Hilary Clinton, Mahrang is already sipping drinks with EU officials, and may well soon be elevated to Clinton levels of prominence.
This is precisely why we need to protect freedom of speech. The aim is not protection for propaganda. It is to protect the righteous voice that is week. Any dissenting statement can only be of 3 different kinds; false, true, or partly false/true. Any dissenter can only be of 2 kinds; powerful or week against its opposition. Without any protection for speech and expression we get the below game theory diagram:
1) If the statement is true and the dissenter is powerful, the dissenter will win. Truth wins.
2) If the statement is false and the dissenter is week, the dissenter will lose. Truth wins.
However,
3) If the statement is true and the dissenter is week, he will lose. Falsehood wins. This is exactly the man and speech which must be protected. Not for himself, but for the benefit of his society. Human history is choke full of week righteous dissenters who were either snuffed out or subjected to horrendous atrocities by the powerful in the guise of censorship of the supposed falsehood. In a society without protection of speech, such as ours, the powerful are always "true" and the week are always "false". When you afford the truth protection the dissenter becomes the catalyst for change and the source of education for the illiterate.
He/she provides the critical thought for all the rest. All successful/prosperous societies are built upon these few men and women, from Prophets to scientists to social reformists. No society has ever been anything otherwise. The entire west was illiterate when they rose.
4) If the statement is false and the dissenter is powerful, the dissenter will win. Falsehood wins. Unless, you protect his/her righteous week opposers. Then the situation turns into No.3 above.
5) & 6) If the statement is partly true/false, the dissenter will win if he is powerful and lose if he is week. In both situations the society will lose the part that is true. Unless you protect all voices and let them duke it out, which will eventually sift out the false and keep the truth.
Falsehood has no future if the truth opposing it is protected. Truth, by its nature, has no fear of falsehood, no matter how competent the propagandist might be. You have examples of all of the above throughout our own past. Since no falsehood ever believes or accepts itself to be false who decides what to censor? Do we leave it to the powerful? The majority? Maybe
@CynicalPakistaniCritic? How do we know that they are true? Instead, you protect all voices, run them against each other, and let the discourse take its natural course. What will be left will usually be the truth. If it is not, then at least it will be the will of the people which will continue to generate righteous dissenters until they change the will of the people. To summarize, it is far more pertinent to protect the truth than to punish the false. The truth will take care of the false as long as it is protected against the powerful, even if that means protecting the false along side it.
ps: Protection does not mean support.
Like I said, emotionally immature and insecure.
Regardless, thank you for proving my argument that debate beats censorship.