According to a report in the New York Times, Union Minister, Mr. Kapil Sibal met with leading social networking sites in an attempt to censor messages posted on them related to India. According to the report, Mr. Sibal called legal representatives from the top Internet service providers and Facebook into his New Delhi office… At the meeting, Mr. Sibal showed attendees a Facebook page that maligned the Congress Party’s president, Sonia Gandhi. “This is unacceptable,” he told attendees, and he asked them to find a way to monitor what is posted on their sites. The report goes on to say that he wanted these sites to be humanly monitored as opposed to using technology to filter out offensive comments!
The attempt to clamp down on personal freedom, while the government uses all its might to dig up dirt on its opponents, are troubling signs of those in power trying to exercise undue control. The good news is that the fear of social media has crept its way to the very top and an attempt to crush this could spell the eventual doom for those in power. Earlier this year, the Egyptians “turned off” the Internet in act of desperation and the world knows how that story ended. We might not have reached such a precipice as yet, but these are sure signs that those in power are determined to go to any lengths to crush the rising tide of discontent.
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Pakora Korner 