CENSORSHIP

THE (LACK OF) SOCIAL CONTROL OF INFORMATION

Abstract

This text contains a reflection on censorship, seen as a tool for social control of information. By prohibiting, censorship actions are capable of triggering gestures of lack of social control, understood here as forms of disobedience in social relations. The general objective is to promote a debate on forms of information censorship. Through a bibliographical review, theoretical and philosophical concepts were sought to bring thoughts together. The notions of information movement (McLuhan, 2005), power (Foucault, 2007), future (Ingold, 2012; Lacaia, 2001) were mobilized; morality (Aranha; Martins, 1993) and civil disobedience (Thoreau, 2016) as cornerstones of the considerations undertaken. The discussion was exemplified with the novel The name of the rose, by Umberto Eco (1986). The result is an expansion of the notion of censorship, whose potential lies in opening horizons in the face of a simplistic understanding of this form of information control.