Indian Censorship reaction: Cover up of internal failures

[Awesome]

‘Show me one byte of NE students saying panic was caused by internet’ | Firstpost

The Indian government has blocked more than 250 websites blaming them for uploading morphed images and causing panic and leading to the exodus of north-east citizens. According to blogger and activist Shivam Vij this ban is just another kind of ‘bullying’ in cyberspace.

“There is general bullying that the government is been doing to intermediaries to do their own censorship,” Shivam Vij told CNN-IBN.

“It is not just bullying but also shifting the blame on who is not to be blamed,” he added.

Vij also said that till now there is no proof that the exodus of the north-east citizens was caused due to some content on the website.

“Can you show me one byte or clip of a North-east student saying that the panic was cause by the internet?” Vij questioned.

Such kind of censorship by the Indian government is not new and the government usually does it to hide its incompetence, Vij said.

“A lot of heinous censorship is already happening on the internet done by the Government of India for years now, nothing new about that, which they use to cover their incompetence,” he said.

One really has to wonder where the internet penetration is so low, people of villages would be affected by a few threads on social media.

North-East exodus: Politicians, not Pakistan, made it worse | Firstpost

“Bulk of the rumours that triggered panic among people of northeastern states in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were sourced from Pakistan, Union Home Secretary R K Singh said.

“A total of 76 websites were identified where morphed images were uploaded and bulk of these were uploaded in Pakistan,” Singh told PTI,” Firstpost had reported.

Here we go again, blaming Pakistan for the newest problem on the block.

Perhaps RK Singh is correct – and that the bulk of the rumours originated in Pakistan.

What Singh, the home minister, the prime minister and the political classes in India (all of them) should spend time on is why it was so easy for citizens of the North-eastern states to believe in the rumours.

Tomorrow, it could be a rumour of ‘north Indians’ being targeted in Mumbai, Marwaris being targeted in Assam, Tamilians being targeted in Karnataka and Kerala, Malayalees being targeted in Tamil Nadu, upper castes being targeted in UP, Dalits being targeted in Bihar, and so on.

All these possible rumours, wherever they might originate, will be easy to believe.

They would be easy to believe because, over the decades, all political parties have looked the other way when one section of society has targeted another because such events suit their political ends. If, over history, the state machinery had cracked down on the offenders (even in the pre-mobile telephony and pre-Internet days), citizens who now hear of such rumours would have felt confident that, even if the rumours held a semblance of truth in them, they would be protected.

What we see is the worst of vote bank politics every time something like this rises.

In the current ‘exodus’, the political parties went into a game of one-upmanship (the blame game on the illegal immigration from Bangladesh) before attending to the more pressing issue – making those who were targeted feel safe across the country. Politics should have come later.

Yet, all political energies of the two principal parties in the country (currently) are focused on the possible political gains and losses that could accrue.

How does it matter who is responsible for the rumours? The rumours give politicians a new issue that, if used well, could harvest votes for one alignment of parties or another.

The tragedy in the current instance is that none of political parties involved – the UPA government at the centre, the BJP government in Karnataka, the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh, the coalition government in Maharashtra and the various political parties in the north-eastern states — have been able to convince the targeted citizens that they would be safe and looked after if they chose to stay in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. The lack of confidence is telling and should be of concern to the political classes.

But the politicians are busy working out possible gains and losses in terms of votes and seats. And, as is their wont, they play the blame game and take solace in it.

This time, the centre finds that Pakistan is responsible. That attempts to get the Centre off the hook. By today, the various state governments will use Singh’s statement to get themselves off the hook.

The very statement diverts the issue from why the exodus took place in the first place. The issue is not the rumour, and nor is it where the rumours originated.

The issue is why the victims could find the rumours so easy to believe — and why statements by the politicians promising protection were so difficult to believe.

 

[harpoon]

Its ridiculous on the Indian Govt to blame internet for the actions of some retards.

 

[Awesome]

I wasn't following this development but Google had warned about the sharp rise in censorship in India earlier

Internet censorship in India up 49%: Google - Indian Express

Internet giant Google has said it has logged 255 instances of India asking for online content censorship, marking a sharp rise of 49 per cent in the second half of last year.

Google Inc said India's request formed part of 1,000 demands from governments around the world in the second half of last year to take down items such as YouTube videos and search listings, and it complied with them more than half the time.

India's objections ranged from blockage of 133 YouTube videos, including 10 made on national security considerations and 77 on defamation, besides 26 web searches and 49 blogs, Google said in its transparency report made public yesterday.

The Internet giant said political comments were a prime target as the number of requests for the company to remove content from the reach of Internet users jumped manifold.

“We noticed that government agencies from different countries would ask us to remove political content that the users had posted,” a top Google official said.

He said the number of content removal requests received by Google in India was 49 per cent higher in the second half of last year than in the first six months.

Google reported that it went along with slightly more than half of the approximately 1,000 requests it received to remove material or links.

After the US, India topped in demand for user data with more than 2,207 requests of which 66 per cent were compiled with by Google. Washington headed the global list with 6,321 requests.

Google along with some other Internet companies already faces lawsuits in India for content found objectionable on its website. A key issue in the dispute is whether intermediary can be held liable for third party content on its websites.

The Google report does not provide insights from countries such as China, where tight Internet controls allow blocking of content.

The net blockage request from governments ranged from satires on military Generals in Pakistan, request from UK police officers to terminate six YouTube videos for terror contents and SOS for removal of as many as 149 videos for allegedly insulting the monarchy in Thailand.

Google said Pakistan's Ministry of Information of Technology asked it to remove six YouTube videos that satirised the country's military and senior politicians.

“We did not comply with the request,” it said.

A company top official said that the prime request from the governments were mostly to take down political speech. “It's alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect - Western democracies not typically associated with censorship.”

Like India, content removal requests doubled from the US in the second half of last year as Ukraine, Jordon and Bolivia showed up for the first time on the list of countries out to have materials removed.

From political to terror inspirations, Google said that requests at times became ludicrous as Canadian officials wanted removal from YouTube of pictures of a citizen peeing on his passport and flushing it down a toilet.

Releasing the transparency report, Google said it hoped to continue to contribute to the public debate about how government behaviours are shaping our web.

Overall, the firm said it had received 461 court orders covering a total of 6,989 items between July and December 2011. It said it had complied with 68 per cent of the orders.

The company said it had received a further 546 informal requests covering 4,925 items, of which it had agreed to 43 per cent of the cases.

 

[harpoon]

Whats more disturbing is that the so called liberal journalists are supporting this censorship? May be they are afraid of the 'internet hindus'.

 

[Paan Singh]

Who brought immigrants and made assam as muslim test laboratory?? pakistan
Who threatened NE students to flee and to propagate message? pakistan

Who is afraid and hiding the news from whole country about the assam?? GOI or pakistan

so why the fk blame is on pakistan?

I have been saying again n again that pakistan is made as scape goat for every failure of our govt.

Sometimes govt do bomb blast to divert the media attention from some typical political issue and govt blame paksitan for it..

like they blamed U.S for anna hazare and we chutiya people of india believe watever non sense our govt says to us...

so open ur eyes n see the devil inside in the govt who makes us fool...

i wrote same post a week back and indian poster called as AbingdonBoy was bashing me...

so GOVT in center i.e congress is responsible for this mess and for face saving they are blaming pakistan coz they know that ppl will forget as usual like they did in past..and govt will get their self out of this mess

 

[third eye]

What censorship is this ?

Blocking sites which target your own country with malicious &ill intended posts is well within the rights of a Govt. Nations block the air waves and TV channels.

The primary social network sites like FB, twitter etc are untouched.

 

[harpoon]

Its not that Pakistanis are saints and they are looking for every opportunity to bleed India by a thousand wounds but lets be real and don't adopt an ostrich like approach regarding our problems.

 

[newdelhinsa]

The only causality of this secularism of India are now Hindus. It has become a 'Gali' abuse or taunt for Hindus.

The censorship is going to be enforced only on Hindu nationalistic parties who have been exposing corrupt congress-I. The interesting part is non of their contents are communal but anti government.

Shame on Congress-I, Hindus in are getting choked day by day by the in India and Muslims are getting away with their anarchies.

Blaming it on Pakistan is top class buffoonery of Government of India.

 

[harpoon]

What censorship is this ?

Blocking sites which target your own country with malicious &ill intended posts is well within the rights of a Govt. Nations block the air waves and TV channels.

The primary social network sites like FB, twitter etc are untouched.

Then whats the difference b/n India & China. We can make fun of Chinese being considered unworthy by their CPC bosses to handle harsh realites...now are we also headed the same way. Is India also becoming a nanny state where the Govt determines whats good for the citizen to see and whats not.

 

[third eye]

I do not concur

I think the Govt is doing the right thing.

 

[Jung]

Muslims in india saw those morped images,...their heads started boiling and started threatening northeast indians...simple!!!

 

[harpoon]

The only causality of this secularism of India are now Hindus. It has become a 'Gali' abuse or taunt for Hindus.

The censorship is going to be enforced only on Hindu nationalistic parties who have been exposing corrupt congress-I. The interesting part is non of their contents are communal but anti government.

Shame on Congress-I, Hindus in are getting choked day by day by the in India and Muslims are getting away with their anarchies.

Blaming it on Pakistan is top class buffoonery of Government of India.

You should have seen 'Face the nation' by Sagarika Ghose yesterday...she conveniently shifted the blame from Muslims to Hinduvta forces for the so called victimhood mentality of Muslims.

 

[INDIC]

One really has to wonder where the internet penetration is so low, people of villages would be affected by a few threads on social media.

Protest occurred in affluent cities like Lucknow or Mumbai where internet penetration is very high. Morphed images did play a role in inciting people in these cities who can't even locate Myanmar on the map believing Rohingyas being Mongoloid people.

 

[harpoon]

I do not concur

I think the Govt is doing the right thing.

Why bcs some retards in our country is not able to think clearly.

Protest occurred in affluent cities like Lucknow or Mumbai where internet penetration is very high. Morphed images did play a role in inciting people in these cities who can't even locate Myanmar on the map believing Rohingyas being Mongoloid people.

And why Muslims in India went on rampage? Why not in GCC or other 50+ Islamic countries.

 

[third eye]

Then whats the difference b/n India & China. We can make fun of Chinese being considered unworthy by their CPC bosses to handle harsh realites...now are we also headed the same way. Is India also becoming a nanny state where the Govt determines whats good for the citizen to see and whats not.

The primary diff between India & China is that there is we have chronic instability while they do not.

As a nation we need to look after ourselves first. This ' chalta Hai' approach has led us to this situation where ppl sitting miles away can create turbulence within us.

Firm measures are needed - pro actively.