[Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal wants to censor social media

Wed Dec 7 07:16:51 UTC 2011

I don't know whether a discussion on social networking is really directly
on-topic for this list, but the reality is that the provisions of the law
as it stands right now are certainly of dire portent for a free and
fearlessly neutral Wikipedia and its associated projects. What Mr Sibal
appears to be suggesting goes much further than the law, and as has been
argued by several lawyers and Constitutional experts already, goes beyond
the Constitution. Today social networking, tomorrow any other online
content.

To take the subject most tiresomely and hotly debated during our recent
Wikipedia Conference in Mumbai, maps. Those of us online in the 90s had to
suffer the anachronistic and quite patently ridiculous rules of the GoI
regarding maps in those days: publishing of anything faintly accurate about
India was well-nigh impossible, publishing sensible guidebooks totally
impossible for anywhere off the beaten track. To get a detailed map of
anywhere Indian, one had to pose as a student and trek to Calcutta's
(that's what it was in those days) Survey Institute where you could get a
physical copy for a few rupees. Reproducing verboten, in any form, a
jailable offence.

Google Maps was deemed against national security, until our Air Chief
Marshal went public saying he had no objections, that any 'enemy's'
airfields were as liable to be exposed as ours.

In this particular case, pretty well all the 'proprietary' social networks
have a very clear policy that legally objectionable content will be taken
down upon receipt of a complaint. Obviously this does not happen overnight,
and this is not what Mr Sibal objects to anyway. No, he wants the content
to be pre-screened. If the same rule of thumb was applied to cases
instituted by the Government of India against ordinary citizens  (in
criminal and civil matters) in court, a great many would be dismissed
immediately, I daresay, as the evidence is found to be wanting once the
case is heard. If it was applied to arrests by the police, the situation
would be much worse, and the police would be almost completely incapable of
carrying out any work at all.

To some extent, the pressure on our public servants (elected or otherwise)
is psychologically enormous, they deal with incredibly complex problems
almost routinely. And most matters do get dealt with reasonably well. It is
the silliness of autocracy that stands out most sharply in an increasingly
online and increasingly less nationalistic world. Just as being cut off
from connectivity can sometimes turn out to be a welcome relief, perhaps
some of these fellows need a break from politics. It is a shame that our
system of governance does not seem to allow for such breaks, as many of
these jobs are also under the hidden pressure of internal competition.

On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Achal Prabhala <aprabhala at gmail.com> wrote:

> fyi
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:        Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal Wants to
> Censor
> social
> Date:   Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0530
> From:   Achal Prabhala <aprabhala at gmail.com>
> To:     Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>
>
>
> Some updates on this, for anyone interested:
>
>
> http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/any-normal-human-being-would-be-offended/
>
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/facebook-google-tell-india-they-wont-screen-for-derogatory-content/2011/12/06/gIQAUo59YO_blog.html
>
>
> http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/12/06/indias-dreams-of-web-censorship/#axzz1fpN86lWI
>
>
> http://www.legallyindia.com/201112072434/Regulatory/kapil-sibal-to-sterilise-net-but-cis-sting-shows-6-out-of-7-websites-already-trigger-happy-to-censor-content-under-chilling-it-act
>
>
> http://www.livemint.com/2011/12/06130244/Govt-wants-to-scrub-the-Intern.html
>
> There's still no clarity on what Kapil Sibal meant/means; whether he's
> serious; and the rules of the proposed IT act are still worrying; but at
> least the outcry is now entrenched.
>
>
> On Tuesday 06 December 2011 10:24 PM, Bishakha Datta wrote:
> >  On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 9:07 PM, Kim Bruning<kim at bruning.xs4all.nl>
> wrote:
> >
> >>  On Tue, Dec 06, 2011 at 09:25:03PM +0530, Achal Prabhala wrote:
> >>>  On Tuesday 06 December 2011 08:27 PM, Kim Bruning wrote:
> >>>>  I do not  believe that the Indian internet community shares Kapil
> >>>>  Sibal's position. Though they'll have to speak for
> >>>>  themselves, of course! :-)
> >>>  They have:
> >>>
> >>>  http://blogs.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10&pid=2664
> >>>
> >>>  and Mr Sibal's passing thought of yesterday is probably not going
> >>  anywhere.
> >>
> >>  And hurrah for that!  :-)
> >>
> >  A cautious hurrah.
> >
> >  In April this year, the Indian government tried to restrict web content
> by
> >  holding sites and service providers - or 'intermediaries' liable for
> >  content.
> >
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/technology/28internet.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=india%20online&st=cse
> >
> >  These new rules will be considered by Parliament in the winter session -
> >  and continue to pose a huge threat to online freedom of expression in
> India.
> >
> >  Best
> >  Bishakha
> >  _______________________________________________
> >  foundation-l mailing list
> >  foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> >  Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
>
>
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-- 
Vickram
Fool On The Hill <http://communicall.wordpress.com>
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