I was shocked when IHM sent out a mail the other day informing people that the Indian government was drafting a law on monitoring Indian blogs. I really thought we were beyond this. I mean after all the progress Indian civil society has made in the past few years, with all the Supreme Court’s observations about the importance of freedom of speech even if it offends people, we’re still hit with this kind of crap.
Gagging Indian Bloggers
Well, I can understand certain restrictions. If I were to blog about the locations of secret nuclear installations, that would be an issue. If I were to put up pictures of child porn, I can see why the government should hold me responsible. The real problem is the reasons for which a blog can be taken down. Just look at the proposals:
You’re not allowed to “annoy” people :D – A lot of people annoy me on the web. I put up with it.
You can’t indulge in “blasphemy”: Or what – I get shot like those poor guys in Pakistan?
Your blog can’t “incovenience” people – Someone’s delicate feelings are hurt on my site which they choose to visit and that’s my problem?
You can’t “disparage” someone – What exactly does that mean? If I feel a guy’s an asshole I can’t call him that?
To cap it all, it says anything “otherwise objectionable” can land me in jail for 2 years (!) or a fine of a few lakhs.
On reading the draft proposal, it seems the government wants to put my humble blog on par with a telecom company by calling it an “intermediary.” They want me to run it like a business, with ISO certifications! The only phrase I can find which describes this move is “monumentally stupid” and is a symptom of a government which is badly out of touch with reality and just doesn’t “get” what the Internet is all about.
On the other hand, I’m happy there’s hell being raised. Three years ago when the govt. implemented the draconian IT amendment bill, there was no outcry at all. No one knew about it and no one cared. I had to get the news from a US tech site called Slashdot which was stunned that India “Sleepwalked into a surveillance state.” Looks like things are very different now than just a few years back. The government won’t have the balls to push this bullshit law now that it’s kicked up such a shitstorm. In any case, I’m confident that the Supreme Court will strike it down as soon as someone challenges it.
My blog is my personal space. I’m not forcing anyone to visit. You come here at your own peril. As an adult, you’re qualified to make the choice to either leave or stay. If you stay, it’s my rules and my content. If you get offended, that’s your tough luck. Deal with it. Don’t go crying to the authorities that I offended your precious sensibilities. The Indian government’s attempt to tell me what I can and cannot say is insulting. It has no business being the arbitrator of what is acceptable or not. Especially when no one is forced to visit any web page on the Internet.
So basically the act is trying to punish people because some people might get their feelings hurt? Wow, just wow. Just how exactly do they plan to enforce this? Are they going to monitor every blog in India? My goodness.
It’s hilarious. The govt. doesn’t even know that it’s impossible to do this :) . Whoever drafted this law clearly knows nothing about what blogs really are and how prevalent they are in the Indian Internet space.
But like I said, it won’t go through. The courts won’t allow it and neither will the people…
Bhagwad,
I completely agree with what all you had written in your post, so am not adding anything to it.
A few related points. ‘Government’ is not stupid. Also, if they somehow insert the ‘hottest button’ into the equation – ‘religion’/'regional pride’ – even the SC might allow some of the provisions to be passed. But that all is in the domain of speculation so not to be taken seriously.
However, of course the government cannot monitor each and every blog, and that is what even I was thinking. But these laws are also like terrorism – it is not the number or fraction of blogs getting monitored and consequently, the bloggers getting penalized that matters. You just harass one or two bloggers – make them accused, tarnish their image in the public space, make the employers wary of such ‘trouble-making employees’ and a vast majority of bloggers will start playing it safe. It might be possible to legally win law suits if ever one is slapped (assuming such a bill gets passed), but most people, including myself, would like to avoid such trouble, especially when ‘example’ would be made out of a few ‘defiant’ people. After all, too much would be at stake for most people in these times of inflation and delays in the judicial process.
I will give my own example – I truly hate religion and supernaturalism, but it is just the awareness of section 295-A of IPC that makes me lot more circumspect about writing against religion. I am way too restrained, many times have to put across my points indirectly and have to resort to euphemism.
But there are some technical issues, too. Would it matter where the servers of the said blogs would be located?
Good points Ketan. I totally get your point about legal terrorism vis a vis a few people, but such strategies need not always work. Look at the problem of downloading content via bittorrent. Many individuals have got caught and fined millions of dollars and made to settle. These cases are publicized. And yet it shows no signs of stopping. The same thing may happen with blogs.
Second, blocking a website, punishing its owner and then having it struck down in court (probably with some acerbic remarks from the judge) is humiliating for the government. They probably won’t do it willy nilly. And of course, once a judicial precedent has been set, no more cases can be filed along the same lines.
I’m not a lawyer, so I might be wrong about all this. But it’s interesting :)
i think they will try to monitor every blog…but they would not do anything because that also know that it is not a easy job to stop common people’s voice.
This is the most absurd thing I’ve heard. Thanks for bringing this to my notice.
Does it also apply to the Indian media? It will have to be muzzled, too, isn’t it?
Shame on the Indian idiots who think of such laws.
The fools and thugs who govern India long ago lost any legitimacy.
Please join or support FTI (http://freedomteam.in/). We must replace these JOKERS.
Regards
Sanjeev
Surprisingly, this doesn’t seem to apply to the Indian media. The govt. seems to think that the Internet is a special beast and that anyone who has a website is like a service provider. The convoluted logic that went into reaching the conclusion that blogs are like ISPs must be seen to be believed!
I guess media already are reachable: addresses and contacts known. They have permits they need to take and can be revoked?
In addition to Bhagwad’s short list of exclusions, I have to suggest that sites that actively promote hate speech are good candidates for govt action., though there is a slippery slope there on the definition of hate.
thanks,
Jai
Yeah, it’s tough to know how to define these things. I would say that as long as a speech doesn’t actively call for violence, it should be allowed…
But then public hate speech laws are in place…don’t know how far to go.
One interesting and even disturbing example from a libertarian site Radley Balko at theagitatorDOTcom:
He wants no case filed against a man who enticed people over the internet to commit suicide. I didnt click the links there but from the comments the guy pretended to be a nurse and kept sustained contact with his targets until they killed themselves.
Balko says this guy is being an asshole but has broken no law.
It is possible he haunted sites where depressed ppl posted and were already taking abt suicide as an option ; a pure guess on my part but indicating that the idea maybe did not originate with this creep.
This isnt hate speech… to the victim it probably comes across as quite the opposite even! But it is speech motivated transparently by the desire to get one to cause harm albeit to oneself. Abetting a suicide is I think already a crime in India. I dont know how this goes in the US.
thanks,
Jai
I definitely think a case could be made for abetting a suicide. Naturally it’s not a clear cut case. So let it go to court, and let arguments be made for both sides and we’ll see what the court says…
What an absurd list of highly subjective terms they’ve discovered! “Annoy”? I’d be in jail tomorrow! “Disparage”? Better make that by sundown today. “Blasphemy”? Oh hell, just take me out back and shoot me already. This sounds like the kind of bullshit I’d expect to see coming out of the Republican controlled US Congress. Hey, if I post a blasphemous, disparaging comment on your blog and it annoys someone, do you think they’ll try to get me too? Or will they just punish you for not censoring me?
They want every blogger to have a form which people can fill out to complain. Very much like the US’s DMCA. The problem here is that bloggers aren’t ISPs!
“On the other hand, I’m happy there’s hell being raised.” That’s what I am glad about too. And glad we are adding to the noise by blogging and tweeting about it.
Very true. More noise, means more people are aware of the issue. The government has managed to push through horrible legislation in the past simply because there wasn’t enough hullaballo raised over it.
‘annoy’ blasphemy’ ‘disparage’ ‘inconvenience’
We do all that in our daily life when we merely talk to each other. Perhaps we should stop conversing too or have guidelines on what we can and cannot converse between ourselves?!
Agreed. It seems the govt. is trying to impose its own civil code on individual people.
But who is going to challenge? Has a PIL been filed?
Since the law is still a draft proposal, nothing can be done yet. If it actually passes as it is (which I’m sure it won’t), then we’ll see.
If the bill is presented in the Parliament, it is *very likely* to get passed. The President will also give her assent. After all, very few MPs actually blogd. :D Yes, it might later get challenged in the SC and that is where there could be hope.
It hasn’t appeared before parliament yet. In fact, it hasn’t even been cleared by the Union cabinet yet. I have big hopes that it will be dead on arrival :)
Your post says it all – leaving nothing more to be said really. So now that IHM has asked me if i would like to say anything about this blog censorship move, i am at my wits’ end – do i have anything to add – or should i just provide your blog link? Good work!
Publicize the issue as much as possible. Social networks/Twitter are pretty good :)
Hi,
Came here through twitter! :)
This is bullshit! Your last para makes perfect sense. Sometimes I think these idiots think of such laws simply to annoy the crap out of people… it really doesnt make any sense otherwise. I wonder how many of those people would apply these very laws to the crappy state of our media? Plain absurdity!
Glad I read this, I am SO going to blog about this too!
Cheers,
Annie.
Yeah, it seems that the babus think we’re having too good a time. Blogs in India have started to shape public opinion and they might want to have controls over a medium like this. But I don’t really think that’s the reason. I think the govt. tried to copy the USs DMCA procedure and stupidly included blogs in the list of “service providers” like ISPs and telcos.
Oh God! Most men visiting my blog are going to be annoyed. I can’t believe that the boy who didn’t know how to eat an apple without an apple cutter is going to be able to take down blog because of my “disparaging” post about him. What next? Novelists who annoy people are going to are going to have to pay 5 lakhs?
That’s the problem na? Anyone can be “annoyed” by anything!
//…is a symptom of a government which is badly out of touch with reality and just doesn’t “get” what the Internet is all about.
lol.. That sounded funny, piercing and true!!
Ah! it does seem like the Government has nothing to do. There are any roads to build or providing basic amenities to all the citizens, or for that matter no reason to monitor any calls made across the border between the ISI and their cells within India, so they are finding new jobs to do… Maybe we should make a law to lower our taxes so that, there is just enough money to build our infrastructure but not to sit around making suggestions for Stupid Laws.
Well, in all fairness to the govt., it’s not necessary to have a priority list and then go one at a time. After all, there are many departments, each of which has to do its own job. So even when the country’s poor are starving for example, doesn’t mean that legislation about say…police reforms can’t go through.
The problem is poorly thought out legislation, not the fact that the govt. is legislating on matters which could be called “less important.”
Very sensible comment, Bhagwad! :)
Which bu**h*le thought of this law? Bloggers and ISP’s? Is there any comparison? Ask bloggers to charge for providing their content. That would properly defeat the concept of blogging.
You have echoed my thoughts….very well put.
My similar post.
http://alkagurha.blogspot.com/2011/03/beauty-and-beast.html
How much control do these Delhi wallahs need? And how much of a brain transplant can we get to them….how soon?! Ridiculous. The Internet’s the last bastion. I bet they’re trying to prevent a wikileaks. Imagine how damaging that would be. Being annoyed is step one to thinking about an issue. And we are all adults who should be able to handle getting annoyed. For Christ’s sake. Ha, just added blasphemy to getting annoyed at the government. How about this – the government annoys me…can it make itself work?!
Sangitha,
LOL @ “Delhi wallahs”. :D That’s an entirely different and serious problem ailing Indian politics. Anyone who needs to have some sway in Indian politics has to first establish himself/herself in Delhi first. This gives rise to what a blogger called ‘Offstumped’ calls ‘one size fits all’ thinking, which is not good for a country with as diverse needs and regionally typical problems as India.
It’s not a question of Delhi Wallas or a problem with one party. Now you understand why those terror attack dramas were enacted in 2008, unfortunately at the expense of innocent people. India is just following the footsteps of America and to that extend Britain and many other Countries are slipping down the slippery slope to Fascism. It’s not a problem with one party or one region. There are only 2 parties: the leaders (rulers) and the ruled ones (subject) or the people. That’s it…
Just look how much freedom and liberty has been taken away from American people just in the last 10 yrs after US 9/11. US 9/11 was simply a TRIGGER EVENT. There is ample proof to prove that in the Western hemisphere. So was India’s 9/11 and all the other terror dramas that were enacted over the years and particularly in the year 2008.
Look at the parallels:
US used 9/11 attack as an excuse to launch: (1) PATRIOT Act which takes away much of their freedom, liberty and privacy. (2) Imposed National ID cards: which would otherwise have never been accepted by the people and (3) Imposed too many surveillance systems in place, Bills passed in favour of Internet Censorship, Opinions floated about infiltrating the Truth Movements (Sunstein), Obama has now the power to operate the Kill switch to Internet in the event of an Emergency (which I think is soon coming) and so on.
In India, after the series of terror attacks in 2008, culminating in “India’s 9/11″ a similar pattern was followed:
(1) India passed the draconian UAPA Law
(2) Within one month they enacted the Universial ID program (UID) which is nothing but to culminate in microchip implanting of humans
(3) Passed the draconian Information Technology Amendment Act (2008) which according to some sources were drafted way back in 2006 but was waiting on the wings for the right crisis to occur so as to be enacted.
In all cases, you see that the “Terror Attacks” were the catalyst. So definitely these terror attacks were really a triggor event for the Govt. of the dictatorial countries to enact draconian laws which would otherwise have been impossible in a typical Democratic setup or a free society. If a true and unbiased investigation is done into all the terroist attacks, you will find that in almost all cases it will trace back to political parties and people rather than the religious people. The religious nuts are just tools in their hands or simply played into their hand being deluded. This is why police officers (Karkare & Assocs.), lawyers (Shahid Azmi) who were close to unearthing or unearthed the real roots of terrorism were eliminated, people who pick up arms to defend their lands from being stolen and handed over to offshore corporate criminals are branded as Naxalites/Maoists, human rights activists who stand for in defence of this people’s rights are branded as national security threats (Dr. Sen), leaders who may have found favour among his people die in mysterious helecopter accidents (YSR Reddy) and so on. What’s happening in US and India and Britain and elsewhere has lots of things in common and it’s altogether a different ball game. So don’t be fooled into believing that it’s a problem with one party or other b’coz u are not going to find any salvation in them. Wake up…
I forgot to mention in my previous comment that the foll. article contains link to sources that showns how some of the 2008 terror attacks were orchestrated by people other than whom they claimed it to be and how there are so much conflicting reports and controversies over some of the widely hyped terror attacks:
http://indian007-newswithviews.blogspot.com/2010/09/some-parallels-between-us-911-and.html
You don’t know why these laws are passed ? This is what I heard:
Imagine you are running a private unaided school, an educational institution. Because of inflation you have to keep raising the fees. Usually it is run by Trusts (section 25 company) which is supposed to be non profit making.
Now some parents come along and start protests about fee hike. What do they use for protest ? In the past they submit petitions but now they use blogs. In these blogs they can write annoying and disparaging remarks. It happens. It is then read by our well wisher parents also who are normally good people, but they also start to do the same. Do you want to promote lack of discipline ? Imagine your own child is studying in this school and starts getting negative feeling about own school ?
This is the real situation, not imaginary. You can see how blogs are used against school management : http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1166668 . You can see such blogs http://vibgyorfact.blogspot.com/ http://rskparentsforum.blogspot.com/ http://www.indianexpress.com/news/gurgaon-school-issues-defamation-threat-for/505865/ http://forabettergiis.blogspot.com/ http://kanpurparentsassociation.blogspot.com/ ….
And finally what is the result ? Cases in high courts and supreme court. You can see this http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/student-expulsion-high-court-disposes-of-review-petition/674805/ and http://www.techgoss.com/Story/406S11-CERT-refused-to-ban-3-school-blogs.aspx for example.
Because there is no strong law, even central government is not able to ban negative blogs. Some of these blogs are supported by Google. One such is the last case in which a Singapore Indian school trying to get rid of 3 blogs in 3 different countries, through Indian court and they are suing Google for that. Unless we make Indian laws tougher than international laws and straight away ban, more such cases will come up. Google is a US company which will not care about Indian culture, they are willing to identify the bloggers but they are very slow to ban blogs. They don’t know what is Indian culture. In Indian culture, it is always school (gurukul), gurus and elders who get the first respect. Only India can make these tough laws so that blogs and internet can be disciplined so that there is proper respect for dignitaries above all.
seriously!! what absurdity! of all the things on which laws should be made, they have taken up blogging!!
Here’s a similar case from USA:
“Jury Says Blogger Has To Pay For His Words Even Though He Did Not Lie”
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/03/jury-says-blogger-has-to-pay-for-his.html
Strangely in India Shining we are not free to decide our rights and wrongs. The state decides for us. Our esteemed government treats us like a bunch of imbeciles. The aam-janta needs to be told what to think, what to say and what to see. But the same leaders exhibit selective amnesia when it comes to their own brazen, corrupt and venal deeds that bleed the very nation that they ‘proudly’ represent.
I think it stems from not viewing people as individuals and instead viewing them as a collection that can be manipulated. Very much the way China thinks. Perhaps the two countries are not so different after all…
Looks like the Italian government is not satisfied by the Musli appeasement. more is required….
Looks like “someone” has said “something” about the followers of the child-molester, robber, rapist GreatMan….
What has this got to do with the Congress? I’m sure all political parties support this law.
you are sure
How come ? on what basis????????
You really think one party is any better than another?
Great Post … Will Continue to read more of yours article … Thanks…
India is copying China in many things I recently noticed.
India web censorship is similar to China. But China sometimes executes corrupt officers.
Muaaah! ekdum dil ki baat bol di.Quite evidently the government has gone nuts, and it is the responsibility of us bloggers to comment on it and spread awareness about going around bans till all this nonsense is cleared up. Basically, the problem is that the government is utterly stupid about these things. Like a slow thinking, mentally retarded kid.
They imagine that they are going to be able to keep an eye on the gazzillions of bloggers for one. For another, they imagine
that bloggers CAN be gagged, which is beyond stupid, because if blocked, most bloggers will immediately shift to checking on the blog via proxy, posting by email and them lampooning the government for still swinging from trees and being delusional.
In all their assholic glory, they will literally be the laughing stock of the world. We bloggers will ensure that. They actually put someone in prison, human rights activists will make a China out of them so bad Kashmir will seem like a joke. It is posturing and extremely inconvenient, but that’s about all the nuisance value they hold. They might want to think what it means when the rulers are a nuisance more than the leaders.
Hmmm…. what else? Oh yes. Government, if you are reading this, you really must stop playing meaningless peeping tom.
India Supreme Court Judge Esq Katju has produced a piece on the popular website of The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2071551.ece deals with
Freedom of the Press and Journalistic Ethics. It is relevant to the same censorship of blogs and citizen journalists (CJ). Thank you
Dear sir, please write about the case of IIPM suing Google. Is it the effect of these laws or even before the laws came into force? Thank you
[...] 1. Censoring Indian Blogs – Monumental Stupidity Bhagwad Jal Park 2. Invisible Censorship – How India Censors Without Being Seen: Pranesh Prakash – Kafila 3. ‘Our policy is to ban first and hear later’ 4. The Indian Blogger as a Journalist, and legal implications – MediaVidea 5. Should Indian Bloggers Vote as a Bloc? – Bhagwad Jal Park Rate this: Share this:MoreLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. This entry was posted in Indian homemaker and tagged #makeblog, blasphemous, censorship, disparaging, Free Speech, harassing, Make Blog Not War, obscene, The Right to Take Offence by Indian Homemaker. Bookmark the permalink. [...]