Five reasons why India can't censor the Internet

[Filmmaker]

In a survey to pick star alumni for a big debating clash with counterparts from the rival college across the road, Sibal was on the top five a week ago -- among other stellar Stephanians like Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former federal minister Mani Shankar Aiyar or former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor. No longer!

As the #Idiot hash-tag topped Twitter trends, some withdrew their votes for Sibal, and there were posts like "Chuck him across the road" -- a scathing insult, equivalent to the Parsis' excommunication.

Just a preview of the global firestorm over the next two days!

The fire wasn't from anonymous teens. Seasoned analysts blasted Sibal. Investor Mahesh Murthy posted: "Censor this! ! Five of the top 10 Twitter trends in India right now are: #IdiotKapilsibal, #KapilSibal, #Censorship, #FreeSpeech and #FreedomOfSpeech."

All this, for just one statement from a politician not unknown for his foot-in-mouth disease? Not quite. For, he has the power to misuse and try to make it happen.

During the Anna Hazare movement, Sibal summoned representatives of the social networks. In a king-and-subjects interaction, he kept them waiting, then kept them standing in his room; gave them a pre-emptive dressing down; and snapped: "I don't want any anti-government stuff on your networks. Fix it." There was no room for discussion.

So here's a five-point Internet 101 for the illustrious Mr. Sibal.

1. The Internet cannot be edited: Duh! In an early Dilbert strip, the pointy-haired boss demanded that Dilbert "download" the Internet and fax it to him. A decade down, it's not so funny any more.

The Internet is not traditional media. India's 1975 emergency and the media clampdown was possible because of the linear, broadcast nature of the old media. New media is distributed. No copy desk or censor board can "fix" it. There is no editor to arrest. And, most content is hosted outside India's jurisdiction.

2. User-generated content cannot be filtered: That would slow down the global Internet to a crawl, with posts appearing after days -- even assuming so many "editors" could be hired by, say, a Facebook or a Twitter.

Are phone operators responsible for "content" carried on their networks -- or their CEOs arrested if someone made a terror threat over a phone call? No, the telco is simply asked to help with the investigation -- into who made the call.

Yes, Internet content has the permanence and public-impact potential that a phone call does not, but equally, it lends itself brilliantly to self-regulation.

3. Peer review works: Wikipedia is the best example. Who could have imagined that a user-created encyclopedia could be so objective, and comprehensive? Yes, anyone can go in and edit anything (barring entries like "Kapil Sibal", which have been locked due to vandalism!).

If you make an inappropriate change, someone will come in and correct it. And so it is on Facebook or Twitter. Abusive posts will be reported, blocked, and the individuals knocked out of the site.

4. Draconian controls are not necessary: In this age of global cooperation on terror, companies cooperate. A rational request from India to Google or Facebook to bring down offensive content will be heard -- regardless of jurisdiction.

5. Yes, there are precedents for Internet control, but...: Such censorship is in countries India doesn't want to be -- China, Pakistan, Myanmar or Saudi Arabia. Pakistan became a laughing stock when it issued a list of banned words for SMS messages. (That list is now standard reading for anyone wanting a quick lesson in present and future abuses that aren't in any dictionary.)

The big daddy of "regulation" is China, where everything is filtered, and if you break those filters, you are charged with treason. What a role model.

But wait.

Kapil Sibal knows all this, right? So why is this bright star from Harvard Law School and St. Stephen's college now sounding so anachronistic in the Internet age? Is it the old "thou shalt display higher loyalty to the royal family than the prince himself" mantra?

If Kapil Sibal is to defend himself against the charge of sycophancy, he is on a weak footing. There were many prior potential triggers for tackling social media, including fanatic religious posts, derogatory comments by Pakistan sympathisers, Anna Hazare, and more. That he finally picked a post that targeted Sonia Gandhi suggests that this was not out of serious, objective concern about India's stability, security or secular fabric.

(The author is chief editor at technology publishers CyberMedia)


Five reasons why India can't censor the Internet - 4 -  

 

[Filmmaker]

I think that certain level of decency must be maintained when we express our views but that can be done only we restrain our self, but if Mr. Sibal is thinking that they can force us then that is not possible in democracy like India

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

China does not filter the internet. Like the article said, it would take huge amounts of money and manpower to hire that many editors, and things would slow to a crawl. Yet China's internet is far faster than India's (not an insult to Indians, just a fact).

Indeed, the US employs more pre-filtered messages than China does.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Even the CPC cannot control something as big as the internet, even with their "River crab" policy.

The internet is a true human revolution. And the CPC needs to adapt and evolve in order to benefit from it, rather than clamping down.

 

[JayAtl]

China does not filter the internet. Like the article said, it would take huge amounts of money and manpower to hire that many editors, and things would slow to a crawl. Yet China's internet is far faster than India's (not an insult to Indians, just a fact).

Indeed, the US employs more pre-filtered messages than China does.

and then this one time in band camp....

I love your posts.... " china does not filter the internet, its all US". waiting on the next from you- " there is no one child poilicy in China, It's US who is forcing abortions by the millions per day" .

 

[Huan]

Instead of "filtering" the internet, it is better if the CPC relies much more on the so called "50 cent" army to help spread its point of view throughout the internet.

 

[Filmmaker]

China does not filter the internet. Like the article said, it would take huge amounts of money and manpower to hire that many editors, and things would slow to a crawl. Yet China's internet is far faster than India's (not an insult to Indians, just a fact).

Indeed, the US employs more pre-filtered messages than China does.

but you block social network sites, blogging platforms like facebook, twitter

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Instead of "filtering" the internet, it is better if the CPC relies much more on the so called "50 cent" army to help spread its point of view throughout the internet.

That can backfire though.

The CPC derives its ultimate legitimacy from improving the standard of living of the Chinese people. As long as they do that, then there will be no shortage of people to defend them without being asked.

The real thing that needs to be clamped down on, is the malicious rumours that spread far too quickly on the internet. Chinese people need to always question these rumours before believing them, or best of all... just don't believe rumours in the first place.

 

[beijing consensus]

we need to upgrade our broadband interest speeds, its too slow compared to japanese and south koreans.
shameful we have slower speeds than those 2 countries.

on censorship, india needs to control the interest, internet needs regulations, whether u call it censorship or whatever is up to u, but we need a global authority to regulate harmful internet items to a country or race.

 

[JayAtl]

Instead of "filtering" the internet, it is better if the CPC relies much more on the so called "50 cent" army to help spread its point of view throughout the internet.

That can backfire though.

The CPC derives its ultimate legitimacy from improving the standard of living of the Chinese people. As long as they do that, then there will be no shortage of people to defend them without being asked.

The real thing that needs to be clamped down on, is the malicious rumours that spread far too quickly on the internet. Chinese people need to always question these rumours before believing them, or best of all... just don't believe rumours in the first place.

Oops!

China Pays Bloggers: The "Five Cent Party
China Pays Bloggers: The "Five Cent Party" | Asia | Deutsche Welle | 25.01.2010

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Oops!

China Pays Bloggers: The "Five Cent Party
China Pays Bloggers: The "Five Cent Party" | Asia | Deutsche Welle | 25.01.2010

Learn to read.

He said that the CPC should "rely much more" on that, and I said it could backfire.

 

[JayAtl]

Learn to read.

He said that the CPC should "rely much more" on that, and I said it could backfire.

you have a point/ right...so you both agree about your paid internet bloggers..interesting

 

[beijing consensus]

Even the CPC cannot control something as big as the internet, even with their "River crab" policy.

The internet is a true human revolution. And the CPC needs to adapt and evolve in order to benefit from it, rather than clamping down.

says a guy from hong kong.
ur true colours showing.

most hong kong people hate chinese government because hong kong people would rather let the british rule over china than han chinese.

personally i wish cpc sent the military to hong kong and took full control of hong kong through force and got rid of british systems from hong kong and restored chinese legal system, chinese education system, chinese immigration laws and changed all british street names to chinese names. westerners use hong kong as a base to spew anti-chinese propaganda and most hong kong people are pro-west. hong kong allowing google to operate shows they are anti-cpc. hong kong, taiwan, macau are all part of china and should be under full mainland control just like a mainland province even the currency they use should be the renminbi. its a humiliation for china to let british have their own systems installed in a chinese territory.

i agree with pretty much everything cpc does.
internet regulation is needed to weed out anti-chinese dogs that try to topple the communist party.
only thing i disagree with the cpc is on military affairs, we are too nice to our rivals, we need to be more cold, brutal and ruthless against anyone that threatens han chinese interest worldwide. zero tolerance approach must be shown.
powerful countries dont need to be nice to anyone.
we should do what we want, whenever the damn hell we want to do it.
thats the US approach, and they have been successful with that approach.
the world resources decreasing and demand for them skyrocketing, nice people will finish last in a fight for those resources.

the US wants internet 'freedom' in china so they can bring instability to china thus collapse the chinese economy. thats whats all this internet 'freedom' is about. the chinese government sees through this.
just listen to john huntsman.

china is too powerful to be controlled, thus they go to plan B, which is to contain the chinese motherland.

one thing worse than the westerners seeking to rule china are chinese traitors that are sympathetic to the west cause.

 

[ashokdeiva]

and then this one time in band camp....

I love your posts.... " china does not filter the internet, its all US". waiting on the next from you- " there is no one child poilicy in China, It's US who is forcing abortions by the millions per day" .

why is that you always derail a thread with off topic messages, as you are a american, i am sugesting that you change your both flags to america, when you put up the tri-color flag, you are doing more harm to INDIA than our bloddy politicians.

 

[beijing consensus]

why is that you always derail a thread with off topic messages, as you are a american, i am sugesting that you change your both flags to america, when you put up the tri-color flag, you are doing more harm to INDIA than our bloddy politicians.

true.

same thing with chinese-dragon.
he needs to change his flags to hong kong flag.