Indian Government is again planning to censor free flow of information on the Internet.This time it is bewildered by the Anti-Congress sentiments flowing through various social networking websites on the web. According to a report in The New York Times, the Government has demanded social networking sites to pre-screen any defamatory contents before it goes online. The Government has also demanded manual censorship in place of technology based censorship.
Union Minister Mr. Kapil Sibbal has convened a meeting with executives of Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft in which he will express his resentment against the Anti-Congress Contents getting online.
He is also expected to warn them about the consequences viz. Blocking of Entire Website if the immediate actions are not taken.
Background
There are various pages on Facebook which express their resentment against the ruling Congress party. Below are few such Facebook Pages
We hate Congress
We hate Rahul Gandhi
In a recent meetings, Mr. Sibbal showed that such pages have maligned the Congress Party’s image and termed it ‘Unacceptable’.
If the Internet Giants like Facebook and Google refuse or fail to act accordingly it may result in Partial or Complete Ban, Legal Action etc.
The Million Dollar Question is whether the Government has the right to prevent anyone’s expression appearing online. Millions of Netizens find it the only way to express their grief and sentiments. Perhaps a more authentic question is whether people of India really want the censorship of Online Content. If the answer is no, then can this action of Government be justified?With both paper and electronic media suffering from corruption and with the advent of paid journalism, the only medium of free expression remaining is the Internet. What is Your Opinion???