We read:
"India has urged social network companies including Facebook, Twitter and Google to remove offensive material, unleashing a storm of criticism from Internet users in the world’s largest democracy complaining of censorship.
Telecoms and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal met executives from Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft on Monday to ask them to screen content, but no agreement with the companies was reached, he said.
Sibal denied he was promoting censorship and said some of the images and statements on social media sites risked fanning tensions in India, which has a long history of deadly religious violence.
“We have to take care of the sensibilities of our people, we have to protect their sensibilities. Our cultural ethos is very important to us,” Sibal told reporters on Tuesday.
Sibal said his ministry was working on guidelines for action against companies who did not respond to the government’s requests, but did not specify what action could be taken.
India’s bloggers and Twitter users scorned the minister’s proposals, saying a prefiltering system would limit free expression and was impossible to implement.
Source
Indians have taken to democracy almost as well as they have taken to cricket but they still are an old-fashioned society on some issues.
9 comments:
We read, "... India, which has a long history of deadly religious violence."
What did I tell you? Religion wrecks everything.
Albert, that's not only a very bigoted statement, but patently falsifiable with only a modicum of research.
Unless, of course, you're claiming the Chinese efforts at censorship are driven by a zealous adherence to the official state religion of Atheism there.
Even the US Congress is trying to pass a "kill switch" on web sites for only "allegedly" bad behavior on the part of people peripherally involved (SOPA). But that was probably written by religious zealots in Hollywood. eh?
The truth is, people in power will look for excuses to keep the people out of power from gaining access to knowledge about what's going on. It's like Mother Kirk tells John in "The Pilgrim's Regress" - "No meaningful transfer of property could take place if the people knew who was really in power."
Fact is, these so-called social network sites are now so out-of-control, that authorities are forced to put limitations on them. There's hardly a day that goes by where we don't read/hear another horror story about someone's reputation and/or life being destroyed, sometimes literally, because of these sites.
Human nature being what it is, when you give people the opportunity to abuse something, they will. They always will!
"people in power will look for excuses to keep the people out of power from gaining access to knowledge about what's going on"
That's why republicans do not want to fund schools. Keep them stupid, so we can send them to fight the wars we start.
We read, " A woman was beheaded in Saudi Arabia for practicing witchcraft and sorcery, the kingdom's Interior Ministry said, prompting Amnesty International to call for a halt in executions there."
Hey, Stan, yet another instance where religion wrecks everything, especially for this woman.
Religion is not the only "excuse" for bigotry and "outgroup" agression but history has shown it as a major catalyst.
Stan B of course mis-represents China as having "the official state religion of Atheism".
A backwards nation that worships cows,elephants and monkeys and lets their kids starve
And where is 'Bird' from ? - a backward nation whose majority worships an ancient jewish rabbi as a god, and whose population has a huge number on the level of a Third World country. And oh yes China has bought up much of US debt to keep Bird in the comfort to which he has become so undeservedly accustomed!
Albert Rosenfeld said...
"What did I tell you? Religion wrecks everything..."
Then just sit back and be happy in your atheism.
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