ENNEMIS of the INTERNET / 12 MARch 2012 / world day against Cyber censorship//////////////////////////// 50
INDIA
NEW COUNTRY UNDER SURVEILLANCE Ever since the 2008 Bombay attacks, the authorities have been intensifying their Internet surveillance and pressure on technical service providers while publicly denying censorship accusations. The national security policy of the world’s largest democracy is undermining online freedom of expression and Internet users’ privacy.
An increasingly connected population The Internet is experiencing impressive growth in India. By 2014, the country should have nearly 300 million netizens, as compared to about 100 million in late 2011. Wireless Internet, especially mobile phone Internet, is spreading as quickly as the price of smartphones is dropping. This trend has led authorities to more closely monitor what is happening on the Web. According to the Google Transparency1 website, which logs the Internet content removal requests that Google receives from governments, Indian officials have asked Google multiple times (67 to be exact, between July and December 2010) to remove 282 content items (namely videos critical of politicians) from YouTube and several blogs. Google allegedly complied with 22% of the requests.
Netizen loses her life Even the most influential netizens are not safe from a physical attack. On August 16, Shehla Masood, a Right to Information (RTI) blogger and activist, was shot dead2 in front of her home in Bhopal (in central India) while on her way to a demonstration in support of Anna Hazare, a civil society leader and anti-corruption campaigner who had been arrested earlier that day. Reporters Without Borders has asked the Indian authorities not to let this crime go unpunished.
Authorities pressure Web hosting service providers Several meetings were held throughout 2011 between Indian Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal and sector representatives. The New York Times3 reported that the Minister wanted hosting companies and Internet service providers to prescreen user content conveyed by their services and banish those that “threaten India’s unity, integrity, defense, security and sovereignty, its relations with foreign governments or the public order.” Apparently the companies flatly refused to comply because of the volume of data that would have to be processed. Later, in an interview4 granted to the NDTV network, Kapil Sibal denied having ever made such a request. The authorities have already clamped down on several mainly file-sharing and streaming websites without any ruling on the illegality of such actions. Anti-corruption cartoonist Aseem Trivedi saw his website, “Cartoons Against Corruption,” which features humorous anti-corruption drawings suspended5 by his hosting company in late 2011. The cartoonist has since transferred his drawings to a new site. Weary of trying to convince companies to self-regulate, the Indian government decided to resort to legislative and legal means to achieve its goals.
Dangerous legislation The “IT Rules 2011”6, which pose a threat to online free expression7, were adopted in April 2011 as a supplement to the 2000 Information Technology Act (ITA) amended in 2008. These regulations notably require Internet companies to remove any content that is deemed objectionable, particularly if its nature is “defamatory,” “hateful,” “harmful to minors,” or “infringes copyright” within 36 hours of being notified by the authorities, or face prosecution. This has turned technical intermediaries into Web censorship police informants. Also, although some content categories are justifiably objectionable, other more vague or subjective definitions could jeopardize informational content. The companies concerned have strongly criticized the rules. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) found that these would impede the development of India’s social networks :
1 http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/?hl=en 2 http://en.rsf.org/india-right-to-information-campaigner17-08-2011,40804.html 3 http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/india-asks-googlefacebook-others-to-screen-user-content/ 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx5Ih03YhYM&feature=youtu.be
5 http://en.rsf.org/inde-start-of-2012-marked-by-violations13-01-2012,41672.html 6 http://en.rsf.org/inde-new-rules-reinforce-internet19-05-2011,40317.html 7 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/technology/28internet.html?_ r=2&scp=1&sq=vikas%20bajaj%20Internet%20india&st=cse