19 other sites too were ‘hosting offensive content’
Granting sanction to prosecute 21 social networking websites, including Facebook and Google, the Union government on Friday said there was sufficient material to proceed against them for offences of promoting enmity between different groups of people.
They are “doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony” and hosting content that is “provocative, assertive and propagates prejudicial to national integration (sic),” it said.
The Department of Information Technology placed its report before a Delhi court, after which the court directed the Ministry of External Affairs to get summons served on over 10 companies that are based abroad, after summons issued on December 23 remained unserved.
The court, on that date, observed that offences punishable under Sections 292 (sale of obscene books, etc.), 293 (sale of obscene objects to young person, etc.) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC could be made out against the accused.
It also directed the Union government to take appropriate steps and file a report after it received a complaint that these websites were hosting content considered objectionable.
“The sanctioning authority has personally gone through the entire records and materials produced before him and, after considering and examining the same, he is satisfied that there is sufficient material to proceed against the accused persons under various Sections.
These are Sections 153-A (Promoting enmity between different groups… on grounds of religion, race…and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 153-B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), and 295-A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code,” the DIT report placed before Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar said.
The matter has been listed for hearing on March 13.
Keywords: Internet freedom, online privacy, online content, objectionable content, media regulations, national integration, social networking
When someone murders using a knife, Do we sue the manufacturer of the knife? or do we ban the ultrasound scanners if they are used to catch kill the unborn girls? Do we ban the particular brand after a car kills a pedestrian? What can Facebook and Google do to its users if they terrorize the Indian politicians by using the internet to bring out their corruption?
This is definitely wrong. No freedom of speech, no democracy. I agree some content monitoring is required but just barring everything is killing the democracy. Guys, it is us... the educated ones who do not vote and that is why congress gets elected (by their quota politics). It is in our hands but we like to enjoy a holiday at home on the polling day. Please ensure that this government does not remain in power the next time. Please go and vote judiciously. In all - Please Vote.
Others have considered issues of legality, human liberty, implications for democracy, technical feasibility, fallouts of economic sanctions etc. Should the law come to pass, how should it be enforced? i. How to define whatever is being objected to, and by whom? ii. How big should the Enforcement Directorate be: Monitoring Unit, Investigative Wing, Prosecution Division - what if there are lakhs of postings? iii. Will the punishment be token, retributive or exemplary? iv. Should any appeals be allowed? v.Would this challenge the citizens to by-pass the laws completely by using a new language of euphemism, double entendre or adianoeta, metonymy, irony, exaggeration or understatement, rhyming slang, pictorial substitution (cartoon characters), coded language, abbreviations, etc ?
Interesting times ahead: Will we see high drama, or a Judge in the mould of ‘Lord Denning’ explaining what modern laws are all about in his obiter dicta?
If it is true that almost all of the last batch of complaints made by the Govt were to 'protect politicians from public criticism of alleged wrong doings', Thomas Hobbes wisdom published in 1651 could perhaps be a timely reminder: "The honour of great Persons, is to be valued for their beneficence, and the aydes they give to men of inferiour rank, or not at all. And the violences, oppressions, and injuries they do, are not extenuated, but aggravated by the greatnesse of their persons; because they have least need to commit them. The consequences of this partiality towards the great, proceed in this manner. Impunity maketh Insolence; Insolence Hatred; and Hatred, an Endeavour to pull down all oppressing and contumelious greatnesse, though with the ruine of the Common-wealth." (Leviathan, Ch.XXX.) [Common-wealth meaning State].
Its very simple,they are using a wrong yardstick.The fact is,the yardstick they use is outdated and cannot be applied to,internet in particular.I don't blame the the court,they are using the yardstick which have been provided to them,they cannot do more or less than that.Time for everyone to realise,Internet has grown 10 folds,and is beyond the knowledge of common man,leave alone filthy politicians.It would be foolish trying to control net with the present law(you close one door,it will open another,it is technology for you!),rather appropriate would be social education and awareness.It could be entrusted with any organisation(ofcourse you politicans can apply what they suggest under your name!) which is competent and mature enough to understand the ground reality.Please understand,you Politicians are the last in the list,infact considered a problem creater than a problem solver,as far as finding a solution to social challenges India faces.
Mr Vijayan, if those villages are paradise, why don't you live there
with your family except of in the big, bad city? Think about what you
said - there is NO police outpost. Isn't it possible that crimes do
not get reported? As long as people are content, very few of them will
turn to crime. It is only when the govt fails to provide its people
with amenities that crime and violence starts, right up to the point
of terrorism. Without the urban youth society as we know it would
collapse. Think about what you say.
Roeas - "youth waste their time" etc. Fine. Soft Drinks waste our
teeth. So next the govt should ban soft drinks?
If the concern is really about national disharmony, the govt should
prosecute each case, not assume sweeping powers. Remember how during
the Arab Spring the govt would shut off the internet as a first move
to deal with the rebellion. The govt, under attack for various mega
scams, seems to be doing the same thing.
"Objectionable" is a highly dangerous word here -- for example, what is objectionable to secular people is different and what is objectionable to the fundamentalists will be entirely different -- the problem is this move can end up strengthening the fundamentalists in the long run.
The move is a welcome sign going by the present trend of sites.Just peep into the websites of popular newspapers in India and one wonders why such an amount of space is allotted for sleaze.It might be a business technique and the same newspapers talk about ethics and values in its pages!
A trip to some of the remote villages in say MP or UP one gets to see how a Sarpanch holds sway in his village in terms of morality of its folk.Of course they are illiterate as per available definitions, but to my mind they are more literate than the urban youth taken for a ride by the Net/movies/tabloids.Is this to continue or should we learn something from the writings on the wall? Molestation of a girl or a homicide for cash etc are unheard of in some villages and surprisingly there is no police outpost anywhere near and some of the houses do not even have doors because looting is unheard of.If we have to have s semblance of such a society in the centuries to come we should bring up our children in
@-Jaya Prakash:-"Any act of an Individual or an Organisation can be
easily found to violate a law of any land,if you look deep into them
especially with a lense in your hand.It is not the fault of the law,but
the person who deals with them"--- Great words.you explained and answered in just two lines how law is misused by politicians and officials!A shame when laws are misused against some people actually when they have to protect them.
This is very unfortunate for the Indian judicial system. How on earth a website be banned when the users are free to post anything. It's the responsibility of the users, and the individual users should be held responsible for their remarks. Recently, Mr. Khurshid, the law minister had said something during a campaign rally, which is against the practices of conducting a fair election. Now, should the entire congress party be banned for that or, only Mr. Khurshid be held responsible? It seems the govt. is manipulating things the way they wanted. We're slowly moving from democracy to autocracy!
Let's make a deal with the Indian Government. If they keep India free from terror attacks for the next 10 years, they get to ban facebook for 20 years.
Good Move by the Government and judiciary. Facebook contains highly
deplorable materials in it's sites, hurting religious sentiments. Youth waste their time on Facebook or Youtube for a long time which otherwise could have been used productively. Banning these sites will also lead the emergence of native players in these Web-dominant fields.
Extremely gutless of this government. There are bigger, more pressing concerns at hand and yet they chose to pay attention to this - especially since it is a matter of freedom-of-speech.
As per the News, "Department of Information Technology" has sufficient Proof.... Though the criminal Indictment is reported, the actual case and details like what is the specific type of content which Department of IT is talking about is not reported at all. Everyone has the right to know what these contents were actually.
Can the social networks be indeed purged of all evils by merely issuing summons against the site carrying them? Probably not. The best way to go about it is educating people not to take comments that promotes enmity or hatred seriously. I think a majority of people using facebook, twitter or google understand well what is irresponsible and what makes sense. Moreover, offensive contents are not limited to these social networking sites alone. There are thousands of them. What about the sites that host pornographic materials? Pornography business is flourishing through the internet. The government must not attempt something that cannot be attained. The world of internet is indeed pretty vast and the number of sites or contents that can possibly be monitored and companies that can be served summons is too little to make any difference.
Its about time, the dominance of internet firms like Google and Facebook was checked.
Gosh.!! So called world largest democracy, thinking like a communist country. Court says it can block website like China, then what's different between us and China.
First FB,Google eventually all the blogs (as they thought of earlier).
Stop ruling us Congress by wearing democracy mask with communist mind set.
The world goes forward. We go backwards !
On one side our ruling class says that India is a democratic republic with license of expressing one's free opinion.When these classes get out smarted by the power of modern technology through internet sites and they are unable to respond logically, brute force of dictators are used to throttle. In what way can we, Indians claim to be a step better than Talibans? Our learned judges must ponder over it seriously.
This move is against the freedom of expression. The hosting sites do not have nay control over the hatred messages, however they could moderate such campaigns against the common good of the society. Merely expressing once anguish through these sites will not lead to communal disharmony.
Why are they not removing objectionable content? As a close watcher of google for more than 8 years, I know them very well. Now they are teaching to Facebook and other companies how to use modern weapons.Modern weapons that google uses for many years include - Viral bombs at regular interval to increase their user base (now they put it in India) - Freedom of speech, they used in China and other countries - Don’t follow rules of any country, let the gov and citizens fight with each other. Nobody above the law. Law is to protect local people, if something goes wrong, will google, facebook comeforth to solve the issues? No.
Remember the Google mission, “Organizing (all) the world information” it is close to “Conquer the world”, this is not a joke!
Mr Sibal, Ours is a democracy and not a theocratic or fascist Govt. Instead of throttling the media you should be grateful they are holding a mirror to your face to enable you to see who you are..By this means you can feel the pulse of the nation and take corrective or preventive measures in right time. Dont smother the aorta of mass communication of nations life, else you will be like ablind man !!Dont suffer the ignominy like those who attempted and had to bite the dust. Accept the challenge and do the needful instead of spite.
This move is a huge blow to innovation and entrepreneurship in India. Now every entrepreneur will have to think very carefully as to where he wants to host his company/servers. I am an Indian who has been dreaming of starting an internet startup in Pune. Now I am not so sure. If the Indian establishment is so clueless, then there is no hope that we will have innovation in India.
Any act of an Individual or an Organisation can be easily found to violate a law of any land,if you look deep into them especially with a lense in your hand.It is not the fault of the law,but the person who deals with them.I think the same applies here.It is a case of over sensitiveness,nothing else.I think the Government is doing more harm to the society by over reacting.Section 292 and 293 can be used against all the trash litratures sold on the platforms and hanging in petty shops in most of the cities in our Country.Section 120B,153A,153B,295A and most such sections are violated by our Politicians and Political Parties,the Government would do good to deal with them.People who use these services are mature enough mentally,to understand what is good and what is bad.I don't think any voilence have been committed by anyone influenced by such materials in them,if any.The Government is indirectly trying to dictate on the rights of expression of an individual,it is highly condemnable.
Internet is a space for freedom and equality , where one can share their ideas without fear of being prosecuted . Thus its a healing for all . By introducing laws into this space would be a regressive move . Instead of taking these issues in a lighter manner , govt and religious leader are opening a pandoras box by opposing the freedom of the internet . Internet is more powerful than governments , laws and religious freedoms . Its a truly one world where all are equal . It shall not allow any attempts to suppress it . Only more discontent will happen ultimately leading to the ruin of those who try to control it .
China is technologically far advanced than India. China has its own Google and it can challenge Google. The Government and the Delhi court Judge must realise that to be able to do what China did, India must reach to the level of Chinese.
most unfortunate... hope the government withdraws the case
"Nothing is good or bad in this world, it is our thinking which makes it
so". Social sites are simply the medium for interacting different type
of people and getting access to so many useful informations. If we are
using these to provoke enmity among us, we are responsible for it not
the social sites.
Can Hindu publish a copy of the controversial hate speech,this 'Kapilan' is talking about.
Supreme Court should not obstruct fundamental right and freedom of speech, the rights that were righteously fought for and obtained for us citizens by our founding fathers. Where-else do we simpletons of this mother earth have our thoughts expressed than by the present day boon tools available to us by way of Facebooks and Twitters of this world. We can never forget the arab-spring that brought many dictators crumble down, thanks to this strength social-media! Supreme court needs to tread carefully over these sacred waters or it will tamper its own principles that it stands for!
There might be some content on these sites which is not good for communal relaitons etc. Except that all other content is just showing what all these dirty and goon politicians have done with India. It is showing just a real truth. Now politicians are banning this so that their deeds should not be known to public. My brothers and siters, rise...rise... and let us throw all these politicians out of India...
The basic question is very clear - why does the govt get to decide what's "objectionable" and what's not? What's the guarantee that they won't misuse their power and block legitimate criticism and our right to free speech? Because we need to remember that this ruckus started with Mr Sibal "objecting" to morphed images of Ms Gandhi on the Net. Most of those images were relevant, given their context. And given the Govt's definition of a "lean, mean" LokPal and it's sudden urges to "revisit" the RTI Act, it is highly doubtful that these people will be honest in their dealings.Doesn't the Shiv Sena promote regional sectarianism? Aren't the different regional militant groups promoting sectarianism? Why not proceed against them? Why all the rush to prosecute a legal and hugely successful company which has better things to do than baby-sit? Why can't the Govt peruse pages and prosecute on a case-by-case basis? Then they couldn't do as they like - each case would be judged by individual merit
in MAHABHARATHA-WAR, BEESHMA PITHAMAR was
It was a Congress minister who said referred to "Muslim quotas" in UP as a political weapon. It is the BJP who are juggling Hindu and Muslim votebanks to try and displace the Congress. It is the Congress which keeps maintaining caste-based quotas at the luscious places while ignoring facilities at the basic level. And yet, FB and Google are responsible for communal disharmony and these people are not? In response to Mr Sibal's charge, Google offered an additional feature that could enable us to block search results from any website on the PC we're using. So even that is not enough, the Govt has to babysit us? What are they trying to start, a police state? It is a basic fact of political science that the State can regulate only our actions, not our thoughts. Somehow the Govt in all its glory seems to have forgotten that.
And with that, India makes itself known to the world as worse than the Talibanised countries in its neighbourhood it looks down upon.
Very sad. The Government is wasting time and energy going after unnecessary things and blowing it out of proportion.They could not arrest the persons behind various bomb blasts and black money launders, but wants to fight with invisible,intangible cyberspace entities. From Imams to politicians who make hatred speeches, successive governments were spineless to arrest them.This can be termed as a publicity stunt from a government which could not even formulate a good law to cleanse its own home.
This is a serious infringement on freedom of speech. The government is acting like a totalitarian government. The concept of "Hate Speech" could include the most mundane of comments. Every freedom loving person should oppose this.
This is a good move. constructive criticisms should always be encouraged
but not the content that might seem to destabilize or demoralize the
integrity of a nation.
The process of monitoring web content according to any set standard is going to be a rather difficult job. How is the government going to decide whether anything on the web hurts anyone's community related sentiments, or religious feelings? What if a statement or article by someone is completely legitimate, still unacceptable to a small group of people? Where and how does one draw a structure for this? I would not deny that there is definitely a need to check the unbridled misuse f web-space for anti-social activities. But how is the government going to ensure that such proceedings will not become a tool in the hands of a few to curb legitimate voicing of opinions and concerns?
This entire episode reminds me a novel titled '1984' by George Orwell. The government is now behaving like Big Brother.
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