Internet has grown beyond measure and control. The growth has been a pain in the ‘you know where’ for the government agencies; who are trying day and night to have a watch over it and more often than not, control it.
The point that makes me ponder is; when they aren’t able to control the internet, they simply ban it! China had a recent shutdown of gmail after a long string of controversies between Google and the govt of China.
You would also remember when Google search angrily exited China over censorship issues, mostly because the government wasn’t able to control what its citizen can see on the web. And in 2012 when the Indian government brought Facebook and Google to litigation on charges that they didn’t censor objectionable content from their sites.
The point I want to make is; it is not even surprising anymore when the government tries to ban a particular site on the web. But the latest decision by the government of India, surprises me.
The Indian government has asked internet service providers and mobile operators to block access to 32 sites in the name of its censorship laws. The list contains 32 websites and includes some very familiar names such as GitHub, Archive.org, Imgur, Vimeo, Daily Motion and Pastebin.
The grounds on which the websites are banned is:
The websites that have been blocked were based on an advisory by Anti Terrorism Squad, and were carrying Anti India content from ISIS. 1/2
— Arvind Gupta (@buzzindelhi) December 31, 2014
I understand that there are security concerns about the internet, its reach and its impact but sites like GitHub have over 8 million registered users worldwide; it may be that the contents of a single page from the site can be from ISIS and against India.
I believe that can be a possibility and it can be rectified. What’s not justified is the blanket ban on more than 30 websites on that pretext. It raises serious questions on the freedom of speech and expression that the world’s largest democracy boasts of on all global platforms.
The world moves by actions and not words and with actions like these the government of India is not painting a very rosy picture of companies and tech giants eyeing the market for investment.
P.S: As of latest reports, the ban has started being lifted and the websites adhering by the government standards would be live soon.
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