India To Ban Offensive Content?

[csmart 472]

Like CHina and other countires, Indian govt is also planning to ban offensive content on the net. the move seems to be reaction to a derogatory comments and pictures of Congress Head, Sonia Gandhi . Congress cant digest anything that is against Gandhi Family. Mr. Sibal showed these pix to representative of social networking sites in his office.

Govt faceoff brewing with Facebook, others

Source: Times of India

NEW DELHI: Tension is brewing once again between the government and internet and social media companies over the telecom and IT ministry's demands to screen user content and remove offensive material before it is uploaded.

Sources said over the last three months the government has been in talks with these firms to put in place a monitoring mechanism. On Monday, telecom & IT minister Kapil Sibal met executives from the Indian units of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook to discuss the issue, but no solution was in sight.

"The Indian government doesn't believe in censorship," Sibal said in response to a query from TOI and ruled out any coercion. "It believes in self-regulation," he added. Officials, however, said the issue was proving difficult to be sorted out. The executives were shown content which could hurt religious sensibilities and obscene images of Indian political leaders.

The executives told the government that the material was in line with US laws and community standards, a senior official said. "So far, they have refused to cooperate with us. We have not decided what action we can take although the law empowers us," the source added.

Government sources, however, insisted that the interaction was in no way similar to steps that were taken in other countries such as China. "We are engaging with them to evolve a mechanism so that no one is offended and we do not have to resort to censorship," another source said.

The New York Times reported that about six weeks ago Sibal called legal representatives from the top internet service providers and Facebook into his office and showed them a Facebook page that maligned Congress president Sonia Gandhi. "This is unacceptable," he said, reported an executive. The minister asked them to find a way to monitor what is posted on their sites.

In the second meeting with the same executives in late November, Sibal told them that he expected them to use human beings to screen content, not technology, the executive said. Three executives said Sibal has told these companies that he expects them to set up a proactive prescreening system, with staffers looking for objectionable content and deleting it before it is posted.

On Monday, the executives met the minister where they were expected to tell him that his demand was impossible to be met, given the huge volume of user-generated content coming from India, and that they cannot be responsible for determining what is or isn't defamatory or disparaging.

"If there's a law and there's a court order, we can follow up on it," said an executive from one of the companies. But these companies can't be in the business of deciding what is and isn't legal to post, he said.

NYT reported that Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft did not respond immediately to calls for comment, and a Google spokesperson said the company had no comment on the issue. Facebook said earlier this year it had more than 25 million users in India. Google has over 100 million users in the country.

The demand of the government comes after rules were issued by the ministry in April asking internet service providers to delete information posted on websites that officials or private citizens deemed disparaging or harassing. Last year, the government battled with BlackBerry's manufacturer, Research In Motion, threatening to shut the company's service off in India if it did not allow government officials greater access to BlackBerry messenger messages.

The government also plans to set up its own unit to monitor information posted on websites and social media sites, the executives said, which will report to Gulshan Rai, the director general of India's cyber-security monitor.

Times View

There is no doubt there's a lot on the internet and on social networking sites that's offensive, even defamatory. But to suggest that all content, therefore, must be pre-screened by human beings before being uploaded is to ask for the impossible. With millions of users even in a country with relatively low internet penetration like India, that amounts to asking all social networking media to shut down. Anybody offended by content on these sites is free to complain. The laws stipulating what the site's administrators have to do in such cases need to balance an individual or institution's right to protection against defamation with the right to freedom of expression, but pre-censorship by anybody of social networking sites is not a workable proposition.

[dkaile 1,051]

My Reply commiserates with Mr. Khamba- Oye Kapil Kapil Oye - http://www.gkhamba.com/2011/12/oye-kapil-kapil-oye.html#.Tt2HeonxDBs.facebook

[tanveer 59]

This government surprises everyday with stupidity after stupidity. They really think they can censor the Internet? What is Sibal smoking these days?

[rajanmehta 4,056]

Absolutely nothing is going to happen because whatever balls the government was having is used by Mr Sharad Pawar in playing cricket.

We are a country that talks a lot and does little or nothing.

In this particular instance, thank god for that.

[csmart 472]

hashtag has been created on twitter to vent your ire towards sibal. #IdiotKapilSibal

[sujit_k 141]

This government surprises everyday with stupidity after stupidity. They really think they can censor the Internet? What is Sibal smoking these days?

weeds

[amitnsonu 72]

jitni gaaliyaan di jayen utni kam hain......

[drmadhu 87]

भारत में लोकशाही है के ताना सही समाज नहीं आ रहा है,

अन्ना की आवाज़ को दबाया जा रहा है.

[city02 63]

china also has death penalty for corruption / bribery

lets adopt that also!

[csmart 472]

govt also citing the derogatory remarks agaisnt religions. i agree with this. remarks against any religion not accepted. but again, these politicians are the one do it at every moment. they are not penalised.

[omk4r 2]

Kapil Sibal along with Arindam Chaudhuri are mad men..They talk S**T and spread it faster than speed of light itself

One should really see Arindham's views on Internet, so pathetic and conservative and so not acceptable, I almost go into a mad rage, seeing his face

Govt. trying very best to take heat off its *** set by the Lokpal and corruption allegations.

[gvkreddy 0]

Twitter announces ability to censor content by region

By: Todd Haselton | Jan 27th, 2012 at 04:00PM

7 CommentsFiled Under: Social

Twitter announced recently that it now has the ability to, and will begin to, censor content on the social network by country. “As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression,” the company said in a blog post Thursday. “Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there.” Twitter gave France and Germany as examples, two countries that ban pro-Nazi rhetoric from being posted on the Internet. Previously, Twitter would have had to delete specific content worldwide in order to prevent it from being visible, but it can now remove content on a country-by-country basis. Read on for more.

The company’s announcement has caused some to worry Twitter might cross a line that is already blurred. For example, the new policy could prohibit a country’s citizens from using Twitter as a means to band together and stage an uprising. No doubt much of 2011′s Arab Spring uprisings were fueled by social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, and censorship could have killed the powerful voices that helped topple a number of regimes.

“We haven’t yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld,” Twitter said. “One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice. We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can’t. The Tweets must continue to flow.”

Read http://www.bgr.com/2012/01/27/twitter-announces-ability-to-censor-content-by-region/