Government errs on social media censorship, retraces

The government’s decision to block certain Twitter accounts, including that of journalists, in wake of hate speech and offensive content being circulated on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and others has not gone down well with the netizen and those advocating freedom of speech. However the government feels that is justified as the offensive content was causing a threat to the national security. The violence in Assam and the mass exodus of north-eastern people from cities like Bangalore and south created a panic situations and in that sense the government was justified in seeking a ban on offensive sites. The other reason was off course a less serious one, that of parody PMO accounts.

 

Justifying action, the Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said, “the Government was only taking strict action against those accounts which are causing damage or spreading rumours. We are not taking action against other accounts, be it on Facebook, Twitter or even SMSes. There is no censorship at all. We decided on taking action because there were pictures of Myanmar etc. online, which were disturbing the atmosphere here in India,"

 

For the governments there is a problem with the social media. There is no way to identify the individual behind the content. The servers are outside India. The registration is outside. The origins of the registration are unknown. says Minister for Information Technology, Kapil Sibal. He said, “When we ask foreign countries, they ask us to seek information via the mutual legal assistance treaties which is a long process while the problem has to be addressed urgently.”

 

Even the Twitter account of Milind Deora, Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology was suspended while a fake account with a name similar to Deora’s remained active.

 

But the manner in which it was done has not gone down well with the liberals who are up in arms against control. Expressing his displeasure towards Centre’s crackdown on certain ‘hate’ pages and Twitter accounts, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi protested by changing his Twitter display picture to ‘black’. "As a common man, I join the protest against crackdown on freedom of speech! Changed my DP. 'Sabko Samnati De Bhagwan' (May God give wisdom to all)," Modi posted on #GOIBlocks. 

 

Common man too has resented to the government moves. Speaking to Adgully, Bhavik Sogte, an IT entrepreneur and MD of Newtech Software said, “the government’s move is politically motivated and ill-conceived. The social media is incapable of total control and regulation.” Such bans can be worked around easily, he adds by opening more fake accounts.”  Adds another IT professional on conditions of anonymity, “the government should have focused on containing violence and mass exodus of people rather than doing such ill-thought out steps.”

 

According to Mahesh Didwania, CEO, Open Techno Solutions, tweeting public cause little harm and the government should have gone slow on them. It is like punishing thoughts.” He however agrees that drastic steps were required in case of doctored photographs which were influencing people the wrong way. In Assam case the government had reason, but no reason on parody accounts. 

 

Following an outcry against needless censorship, the Government has tried to soothe anger in some way. The Home Minister has said that social media accounts which have posted objectionable and inflammatory content are being blocked and that there was no censorship. 

 

"We are taking action only against those sites which can cause damage. We will not level charges unnecessarily on others, be it SMS or Facebook or Twitter," Shinde told reporters. "Be assured of that. Only those who are involved in this and who have done this job of inciting people will face problems and nobody else," he said.