Internet Censorship and why this is just the tip of the iceberg

Censorship has always been a sensitive issue and with good reason, for it can be perceived as a restraint on the basic freedoms every man is entitled to , in particular the freedom of speech and expression.
It's no wonder then , that when Indian Telecom minister Kapil Sibal wants sites like Facebook and Google to "pre screen" (he insists its not the same as censorship ) content , the world's largest democracy is sitting up and taking notice.
Like all censorship debates the  main question once again is this - who decides what we should watch,read or listen to? After all living in a free country entitles everyone to their opinions , no matter how skewed or politically incorrect they may be. So does the government have the right to mandate what we want to watch or read ?

The answer isn't simple a Yes or No . After all we do deputize the government to take a lot of decisions for us and we do expect it to keep the smut off our TV screens.

Telecom minister Sibal wants us to use tablet internet devices but not the free internet

But back to Kapil Sibal.The man makes two points.Firstly , he says the content on some social sites would be offensive to religious communities , and Secondly he takes personal offense at the unflattering opinions of many netizens of his party chief Sonia Gandhi.
Before I come back to what I think of Mr. Sibal's proposal , let me share a couple of points of interests :


Internet Censorship in China


Government mandated Internet censorship in China is the most stringent in the world.All incoming and outgoing Internet connections are routed through Government servers which screen web page content with a dynamic list of banned keywords and then decide whether to display that page or not.People aren't allowed to view any content related to the Dalai Lama or other areas of political dispute . As of 2010 the word "freedom" has made its way into the list of banned keywords.There really isn't much to say after this.


S.O.P.A.


Stop Internet Piracy Act is a proposed bill introduced in the US House of Representatives just this October which may pass any day now. While this act aims to cut down online piracy of payware and licensed media , its ramifications may be felt in as normal an event as uploading your cover song video to YouTube . which may be deemed as copyright infringement.
Without condoning or condemning piracy , I am still of the opinion that S.O.P.A. would bring US Internet censorship up to Chinese standards and decrease the overall quality of the Internet as many foreign websites would be defunct in the US.

This brings us back to Kapil Sibal and his proposal of pre screening content. On the face of it , his intentions are suspect . He is not really concerned with keeping offensive material off our computers , the reasons behind this proposal are principally the same as those behind Chinese censorship , that of cutting down a mass platform where people could freely criticize the government and its policies.
Sibal realized , and rightly so , the role social networking plays in forming public opinion . In the after math of the impact the Anna Hazare movement had , it is painfully obvious to Mr. Sibal and his party that every share on Facebook depicting the government or its members in a negative light is a few votes lost.
So before this balance sheet could be topped off , Kapil Sibal decided to strike and Internet censorship is his weapon of choice.
As for his "reasons " , all websites have their own regulations regarding content screening. Facebook in particular has a report button which , if we are to believe Mr . Sibal's notion of "posts which offend the sensibilities of religions communities" , can be used by the members of such communities who have been offended and if the figure reaches a respectable mark , Facebook will remove the content anyway.If the post isn't removed it can only be because people actually aren't offended by it and perhaps  that's what Kapil Sibal and his colleagues fear the most - their government's many failings exposed on a public forum for all to see.
This isn't just about Internet censorship , this is about basic freedoms that we are entitled to as people living in a democracy.Criticizing the government and its members is as much our right as is the right to vote.If we let the bureaucrats mandate what is to be displayed on our Facebook profiles , how are we to stop them from cracking down on public protests , on the various "Occupy" movements going on across the free world ? How are we to stop them from shutting up the voices of reason which question their moves , their policies and their people in power ? Internet Censorship is just the tip of the iceberg.This fight is for the freedom of expression , the right to protest , to burn effigies because we want to.
The RTI act was the first victory but the free world needs many more.

Click on the image to help prevent internet censorship with the help of Avaaz.org