[Reader-list] Internet Censorship and the Indian State - Sarai Independent Fellowship 2007 (First post)

[Raman Chima]

Dear Shivam,

Thanks for the link to the archive of your articles; I had come across
several of them earlier but didn't have a comprehensive source for all
of them.

I've currently been examining the work of a Sarai fellowship report
produced in 2004 by Ketan Tanna on Internet Censorhip in India, which
has been quite useful in documenting data as to incidents of internet
censorship up to that point such as the Kyunhun Yahoogroup blocking,
the blocking of the online edition of Dawn and the net telephony
related blocks put in place by VSNL before 2000 which were responsible
for the case launched by Arun Mehta in the Delhi High Court. I'm also
hoping to try and view obtain the video documentary submitted by
Rudradeep Bhattacharjee under the 2006 Sarai-CSDS I-Fellowship
programme on the subject of "Freedom in Cyberspace in the Context of
India".

If you'd be willing, I'd really like to view any material/information
that you have with respect to the petition to ban Orkut in Maharashtra
since that is something that I do want to examine in my project. I
wanted to find some clear material on the subject, since press reports
aren't too clear on the entire matter. I'm especially keen on getting
the cause number for the actual petition.

I already have found a comprehensive report prepared by a committee
constituted by the Bombay High Court on the issue of Internet
regulation with respect to the issue of obscenity thats quite
interesting, since its a proper policy document prepared with regards
to the subject under the aegis of a judicial authority. I'm still
examining it to see how it envisages the role of the State in all of
this, as well as whether there are any similar reports prepared by
State agencies directly.

As for State authorities regulating the Internet under the rationale
of preventing cybercrime, I'm aiming to interview some of these
individuals directly. I already have had some information on this with
respect to the Bangalore Cybercrime Police Station, some of whose
personnel I had met earlier with respect to a project that I had done
on the issue of Obscenity law in India and the Internet. I'll be
visiting them again after I've prepared a comprehensive list of
questions and issues that need to be addressed when interviewing them.
I'll be trying to interview personnel in the Department of Information
Technology, Department of Telecom and the Computer Emergency Response
Team (CERT-IN) in New Delhi in June along with agencies such as the
Delhi Police. If any of you have suggestion as to people and/or
agencies that I should be focusing on studying in Bangalore or Delhi,
I'll be quite happy to have your comments.

Sincerely,
Raman.


On 3/29/07, Shivam Vij <mail at shivamvij.com> wrote:
> > I'd be really
> > interested in comments and ideas, especially with regards sources of
> > information that any of you might think may be useful.
>
> Dear Raman,
>
> I have worked on internet censorship off and on. You can find some of
> my articles here: http://del.icio.us/goalduniya/censorship
>
> There have been other Sarai Fellows in the past who have worked on the
> subject but your proposal is a relief to me insofar as it seems to
> want to go beyond what is already documented.
>
> A lot of the focus on internet censorship is shifting to Orkut. You
> might want to consider Orkut in Maharashtra - Google says it has now
> condescended to opening a direct line of communication with the Mumbai
> Police.
>
> The first case against Orkut was filed by a law student like you
> against I-Hate-India communities on Orkut, put up by Pakistanis. All
> the media reported it, and some had the sense to search Orkut for
> anti-Pak communities put up by Indians - and these outnumbered the
> ones Pakistanis had put up against India!
>
> I searched Orkut for the petitioner's name and tracked him down. I
> asked him: so what about anti-Pak communities? He said that if
> Pakistan had appropriate law, Pakistanis are free to go to their
> courts against Orkut. I couldn't believe it: the guy was just playing
> with the bare acts.
>
> A lot of the reaction against this in the blogosphere was the typical
> oh-we-are-becoming-China hysteria. Hopefully, the courts will throw
> out these cases against Orkut.
>
> You may also want to consider difficult cases where users demand
> censorship or some kind of moderation - identity theft for instance.
> At some point cyber crime and internet censorship do come in conflict.
>
> best
> shivam
>