March 9th, 2009
My Piece on Online Freedom of Expression in India in Indian Magazine Tehelka
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An edited version of my post on online freedom of expression in India appeared in Tehelka recently.
Here’s the full text of the article –
Now, Coups In Cyberspace
Traditional institutions are trying to limit the Internet’s freedom
GAURAV MISHRA
THE INDIAN BLOGOSPHERE is abuzz with discussions on freedom of expression after the Supreme Court refused to throw out the Shiv Sena’s case against 19-year-old computer science student Ajith D. Ajith is charged with criminal intimidation and hurting religious sentiments for starting an anti-Sena Orkut community in which an anonymous commentator had posted a death threat against Sena leader Bal Thackeray.
However, Indian bloggers are reacting to the controversy mostly based on incomplete information. It’s important that we look at this case in the context of the Shiv Sena’s long history of ideological intolerance and violent protests against journalists, writers and artists who speak against its extremist ideologies. So, when Shiv Sena activists vandalised cyber cafes in Mumbai and Pune between November 2006 and May 2007 to protest Orkut communities that ‘hurt’ their religious sentiments, it was part of a long-established pattern. The protests forced Google to deviate from its policy on sharing private user data and set up an arrangement which enabled Mumbai police to directly ask Google to delete ‘objectionable’ content and ask it for IP addresses and service providers.
At the very least, we should see the Ajith case as part of the Mumbai and Pune police’s crusade against ‘inflammatory’ Orkut communities. Several anti-Sena Orkut communities have been deleted and 16 Orkut users have been arrested in the last two years on charges of criminal intimidation. It’s a serious crusade that will only become more intense in the future and it raises several important questions. To begin with, do we really want to defend a blogger, a community owner, a commentator, who has posted death threats against a common citizen or a public figure, or allowed these comments to be posted and then refused to remove them?
Also, should the Indian legal system apply the same standards for defamation for a common citizen and a public figure, especially a public figure as controversial as Bal Thackeray? How can we allow the Shiv Sena, which has set unprecedented standards in inflammatory religious speech (and violent action to back it up), to complain about blog posts or community comments hurting religious sentiments, especially when every criticism of Bal Thackeray seems to hurt Shiv Sena’s sentiments? Finally, given Google’s willingness to short-circuit the Indian legal system and share Orkut and GMail personal data with the police, allegedly in response to email requests, how comfortable should we feel in building our entire online presence on Google’s services?
At another level, we should see this case as part of a trend, in India and in democratic countries internationally, where traditional institutions are fighting back against the Internet and trying to limit its freedoms. Barkha Dutt and NDTV threatening to sue blogger Chetan Kunte for defamation is a part of this trend. Shri Ram Sene beating up women in a Mangalore pub and then threatening to sue the organisers of the Pink Chaddi Campaign is a part of this trend. US senators refusing to believe that child predators aren’t a big threat on the Internet is part of this trend. US, UK, Australian and Indian governments introducing tough censorship and cyber crime laws are also a part of this trend. All these actions, individually and collectively, curtail our personal and public freedoms and also our ability to fight for these freedoms. So, what happens in the case of Ajith is important in itself, but it is also important as part of what’s happening with the internet itself, in India and internationally. It’s critical that we force ourselves to open our eyes and see the bigger picture before it’s too late.
Mishra is a 2008-09 Yahoo! Fellow at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 10, Dated Mar 14, 2009
