[Commons-Law] Watch what you surf, Net police are here

[Sunil Abraham]

Watch what you surf, Net police are here

MUMBAI: The thought police is gearing up to storm the virtual world. 
In what appears to be its first serious attempt to monitor the 
Internet, the Government of India has outlined an official procedure 
for blocking websites. 

An order issued by the department of information technology on July 7 
enables a bunch of bureaucrats to decide the websites Indian surfers 
are allowed to access. 

``This is the first formal step towards Internet censorship in Indian 
law,'' warns Somasekhar Sundaresan, a lawyer who specialises in 
technology issues. ``The order provides the State with sweeping 
powers to police Internet content. For example, news breaks such as 
those in Tehelka.com can simply be blocked by the government using 
these powers.'' 

Interestingly, the Information Technology Act, 2000, only provides 
for the blocking of pornographic websites and the monitoring of 
websites which endanger public order, the integrity and security of 
the nation and relations with other countries. 

But the new diktat goes a few steps further  permitting the blacking 
out of ``websites promoting hate content, slander or defamation of 
others, promoting gambling, promoting racism, violence and terrorism 
and other such material, in addition to promoting pornography, 
including child pornography and violent sex''.

The order  No. GSR529(E)  goes on to add: ``Blocking of such 
websites may be equated to balanced flow of information and not 
censorship.'' Critics, however, point out that much can be 
accommodated under this umbrella clause. 

According to the order, various agencies  including central and 
state home departments, the courts, CBI, IB, police and the chairman 
of the National Human Rights Commission  can submit a complaint to 
the director of Cert-In, a new organisation which has been set up by 
the government to address IT security issues. 

This will then be examined by a committee comprising bureaucrats from 
Cert-In, the department of information technology and the law or home 
ministry. The committee will ``meet and take on the spot decision on 
whether the website is to be blocked or not''. Neither the producers 
of the website nor those with a contrary point of view are to be 
given a hearing.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?
msid=105813




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-- 
Sunil Abraham, sunil at mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org
MAHITI Infotech Pvt. Ltd.'Reducing the cost and complexity of ICTs'
314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 4150580. Mobile: 98455 12611
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples 
then you and I will still each have one apple. 
But if you have an idea and I have one idea and we exchange these ideas,
then each of us will have two ideas" George B. Shaw