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  • Indian Minister Kapil Sibal Wants To Censor User Content In India

    Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator

    Updated: Oct 22, 2024
    Views: 947
    Everyone knows that the traditional media like Television, Magazines & Newspapers are no longer independent. The traditional media is controlled by the rulers and the corporations that buy advertisements on the media. The only medium that we can rest our hopes on is the Internet and independent media sites & blogs that aren't controlled by those who're in power. With the current uproar by the Indians about the Jan Lokpal Bill and the protests that are likely to be held by the end of this month in Delhi; which might go seriously against the Government; Indian minister Kapil Sibal is in action. TechCrunch <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2011/12/05/indian-minister-wants-web-companies-to-self-censor-user-content/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Indian Minister Wants Web Companies To Self-Censor User Content • TechCrunch</a> that Kapil Sibal is meeting top Internet companies in India like Facebook, Google, Yahoo & Microsoft to pressure them to censor controversial user content; which politicians or other citizens feel is objectionable.

    It seems that Mr. Sibal is concerned about people criticizing politicians and posting comments on the Facebook or Twitter profile pages. Those who aren't aware, a 2009 mandate makes it compulsory for the web companies to self-censor the user content and take down the objectionable material quickly or face up to 7 years in jail!

    The move seems likely to control people's movement over the Internet in support of Anna Hazare; who's leading the anti-corruption fight. I wish to ask CEans what they feel about this move. Is it justified?
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  • ISHAN TOPRE

    Member • Dec 5, 2011

    This is not only limited to that. American government is trying to bring a law which can censor internet in India. How? Just google it and you all can see the content in this regard.

    Now the brilliant Mr. Kapil Sibal has planned out another brilliant idea. What can we say?
    What about Right to expression? 😐
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  • durga ch

    Member • Dec 5, 2011

    INDIA is no longer a democratic by nature, its democratic by will . PC states, they have been elected by people and they represent peopleand Sibal does what ever he feels is right for the ruling party.
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  • Gandalf

    Member • Dec 5, 2011

    durga
    INDIA is no longer a democratic by nature, its democratic by will . PC states, they have been elected by people and they represent peopleand Sibal does what ever he feels is right for the ruling party.
    This is because of attitude of Indian people with the electoral procedures
    and mainly the indian youth do not actively participate and try to clean off the system

    If everyone thinks System is Corrupt and enjoy the holiday instead of voting then all elected leaders would be as you mentioned only
    Election Turnouts are at just 56%
    With no party having clear majority
    I Think there will be no change if keep blaming the system from outside

    Increase Viral Marketing of Such issues rather than Why this Kollaveri Di??
    Appereciate Anna Hazare and group for using it

    need more of it


    How can democracy function ???
    Bills Haven't passed
    business of house is stalled
    no one is ready to talk about issues in house

    Want to bring down the government by insisting for voting for all bills ???
    Such a tough situation for any one to run a country
    don't you think !!!
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  • Gandalf

    Member • Dec 5, 2011

    @ Biggie
    I would not give up my fundamental right to expression
    Twitter and facebook present a platform to share personal views of people around the country

    and since web user content is self monitored as you said
    web companies to self-censor the user content and take down the objectionable material quickly or face up to 7 years in jail!
    It is sufficient and no more censors are required
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  • durga ch

    Member • Dec 5, 2011

    😨 was that outburst on me??
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  • Gandalf

    Member • Dec 5, 2011

    @durga
    😀
    😳 No, It was a suggestion for public that keep on blaming the system from outside and develop a will to participate in its smooth working
    You need not go and get electedfor it

    There are various ways of contribution available to democrazy
    1. These include suggestions on various infra projects
    2. Policy suggestions to improve rural sector
    3. Making available Innovativeness IIT's and IIM's at grass root levels and policies required for that
    and so on
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Dec 5, 2011

    Update: Just found more information on the topic on other authoritative websites. Mr. Sibal showed Sonia Gandhi's Facebook page to the companies and showed how people posted comments that maligned Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi. In another meeting with the executives of Microsoft, Yahoo, FB & Google; he asked these companies to employ humans to screen the content posted on social networking websites.

    I wonder whether Mr. Sibal knows that over 48 hours of video is uploaded on YouTube every minute and over 250m tweets are generated every day on Twitter. 😨
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  • silverscorpion

    Member • Dec 5, 2011

    In any case, even if humans are employed, who is to tell what is right and what is not?
    Who is to tell this is defaming, this is derogatory and all.. Where to draw the line?

    If every criticism against the ruling party is censored, that is called a dictatorship.
    And we should never let that happen.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Dec 6, 2011

    But that would be a great employment opportunity. Imagine being employed to read people's comments and deleting them randomly. 😏
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  • ISHAN TOPRE

    Member • Dec 6, 2011

    The_Big_K
    But that would be a great employment opportunity. Imagine being employed to read people's comments and deleting them randomly. 😏
    That can be many people's favorite job 😛 Sitting whole day on FB... 😛
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  • born_star16

    Member • Dec 6, 2011

    What we can say now? Constitution provided so many rights to us but the new Sibbal's constitution is trying to withdraw the same. 😔
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  • Ankita Katdare

    Administrator • Dec 6, 2011

    Political reactions over this news covered by TOI -

    Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on his twitter account announced that he was not in favour of censoring content on the Internet only to retreat his statement minutes later. "As a frequent victim of "disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory content" on social media, I wish2stress I'm not in favour of censoring it, " Tharoor said initially.

    But soon after talking to Sibal, he felt assured that Sibal was opposed to political censorship and concerned only about "communally inflammatory images&language which he described." In support of his colleague, Tharoor tweeted: "Have to say I support Kapil Sibal on the examples he gave me: deeply offensive material about religions&communities that could incite riots...... Pretty vile stuff. Sadly public didn't object2them 1st.....all societies observe certain restraints re language&images acceptable in public."

    Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah showing his support for Kapil Sibal tweeted: "I hate the idea of censorship but have seen for myself how dangerous inflammatory content on #facebook & #youtube can be. We want the luxury of free speech but not the burden of responsibility for how we use that freedom. Something will have to give. If push came to shove I'd come down on the side of freedom of speech but its one of those freedoms that has me worried unfortunately. How come all of you going nuts over Kapil Sibal's proposal also go nuts when Hurriyat leaders go on anti-India rants???? Freedom of speech??"

    BJP MP Varun Gandhi however opposed Sibal's proposal for censorship: "The Internet is the only truly democratic medium free of vested interests,media owners & paid-off journos. Can see why Sibal wants to gag it."
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Dec 6, 2011

    Facebook has issued an official statement on the issue. It says the following -

    “We want Facebook to be a place where people can discuss things freely, while respecting the rights and feelings of others, which is why we have already have policies and on-site features in place that enable people to report abusive content. We will remove any content that violates our terms, which are designed to keep material that is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity off the service. We recognise the government’s interest in minimising the amount of abusive content that is available online and will continue to engage with the Indian authorities as they debate this important issue.”
    Now, Kapil Sibal made it very clear few hours ago that he wants to 'supervise' the content and not entirely censor it. The worst - he wants it to be done manually and not with the aid of machines. This is actually very difficult to implement. Because it's beyond the scope of human capabilities to monitor all the content that's being posted on the websites - via social networks, blogs or tweets. Here on CE, we give the our users the power to report content and once the content is reported action is taken almost immediately (depending upon the availability of the moderators). Every site has its terms, rules and policies under which they have certain control over what people are saying through their networks. However, the main motive of the government, as perceived by the netizens is to dampen the movement that got most of its momentum through the social websites and independent views expressed by leading bloggers.

    Looks like Indian Internet has interesting times ahead. 😒
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  • ISHAN TOPRE

    Member • Dec 6, 2011

    I had made it public, requesting my friends to report a page depicting vulgar messages about Hindu Gods and Goddesses. It is not banned until now even though many of them reported. Many such pages are still there.

    "Indian army fans" page with 400,000+ fans is banned! In other words Facebook content is Ridiculous.

    But really I respect(?) this Sibal. He has power and he is using(?) it.

    P.S: I have a complete loss of say.
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  • Gandalf

    Member • Dec 6, 2011

    @Biggie
    CEan's wouldnt post such content anyways
    With full time Mods doing a Great Job there is nothing to worry
    👍

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  • Gandalf

    Member • Dec 6, 2011

    Issue
    I had made it public, requesting my friends to report a page depicting vulgar messages about Hindu Gods and Goddesses. It is not banned until now even though many of them reported. Many such pages are still there.

    "Indian army fans" page with 400,000+ fans is banned! In other words Facebook content is Ridiculous.

    But really I respect(?) this Sibal. He has power and he is using(?) it.

    P.S: I have a complete loss of say.
    @Issue
    Monitoring content of more than 800 million active profiles and 900 million active pages were user interact daily isn't a easy job.
    So , I consider that there may be a lot of reports that may be ignored

    Anyways Facebook is increasing its employees and security
    Hope these steps will help in Future
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  • born_star16

    Member • Dec 6, 2011

    Security and privacy issues in Facebook are giving Google+ and easy passage to become #1 Social Networking Site. After this move from Govt., many users can leave Facebook.
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