[Modi's bonhomie with Silicon Valley aristocrats could lead to internet clampdown If the internet was a political party , it would easily have been the most effective opposition in India today . Look at its track record. Since May 2014, Congress has one claim to fame making the NDA government backtrack on the land acquisition bill.Internet users, however, boast of forcing the government into the straight and narrow on everything from the meat ban to motormouth ministers spewing communal venom to even online policies. ... The Jasmine Revolution in the Middle-East and India Against Corruption (IAC) would not have been half as successful without the mobilising capacity of social media. Many people today wonder if the Jasmine Revolution and IAC achieved anything truly transformative. But no one questions the transformative force of the internet. It is this energy that some governments will most definitely try to calibrate and control.]
http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31804&articlexml=Section-66A-Dead-Or-Undead-07102015022030 Oct 07 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai) Section 66A: Dead Or Undead? Robin David ***Modi's bonhomie with Silicon Valley aristocrats could lead to internet clampdown If the internet was a political party , it would easily have been the most effective opposition in India today . Look at its track record. Since May 2014, Congress has one claim to fame making the NDA government backtrack on the land acquisition bill.Internet users, however, boast of forcing the government into the straight and narrow on everything from the meat ban to motormouth ministers spewing communal venom to even online policies.*** [Emphasis added.] Given this scenario, it would not be a bad idea to look at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's growing bonhomie with the biggest players in Silicon Valley with some degree of scepticism. After all, these companies have a substantial say in what is published on the internet and what isn't. In fact, the next decade will see a fullblown war over freedom of the internet and it won't be fought only by shadowy hackers' collectives trying to pry out sensitive government data. It will also be fought by people like you and me, and the main adversary will be our own government. The question is will Silicon Valley's aristocrats put their weight behind the people when push comes to shove, or will they choose to side with the government? If their reaction to Modi is anything to go by , it is more than likely that they will back the government. If you haven't noticed, the first battles in the war for digital freedom have already begun. It was only after a hardfought two-year struggle that the Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act in March. Remember that one? That monster law that everyone loved to hate because it was misused to clamp down on people's right to express dissent and be offensive? “The public's right to know is directly affected by Section 66A,“ the court judgment rightly said. Yes, 66A is dead but rest assured that this government and all those that follow it will resurrect 66A in the most innovative (Silicon Valley's favourite word) ways. Like the draft national encryption policy that could have landed us in jail had we not preserved our Viber, Facebook and WhatsApp chats for 90 days.Thankfully , that too was withdrawn after widespread protests from both online security experts and people. Besides, who can forget the prescription to black out all 857 porn sites on the net? Again, the government had to soft-pedal its anti hard-on stand after people refused to have a digital policeman watch over their wet dreams. There were two other interesting developments just before Modi left for the US. Gujarat the state Modi projects as his model for India banned internet twice in two months after a greenhorn politician threatened to whip up passions over OBC reservation for Patels.When the state could not leash in the protesters, it leashed in the internet. And then on September 20, a Los Angeles Times reporter accused Facebook of blocking his interview of sacked Gujarat cop Sanjiv Bhatt which was critical of Modi. While some Facebookers said they could no longer access the link, others said they could. It is quite possible that a technical bug led to the block and that Mark Zuckerberg & Co were not playing censor, but the point is there is now growing awareness about online companies buckling under pressure from governments. Modi has dined with Silicon Valley's aristocracy at a time when governments across the globe have become acutely aware that the internet is a powerful political tool to not only mobilise people and spread a particular ideology , but also to instantly talk back to the government. Don't like the porn ban? You can launch an online petition in less than five minutes. Detest the meat ban? Upload a video mocking it in the blink of an eye.People no longer wait for five years to punish a government for an unsavoury move. They punish instantly , giving official spin doctors very little time to react. Modi himself acknowledges this when he says: “Social media means daily voting, there is no scope for a gap in communication with the government like before. The governments now get an opportunity to correct themselves every five minutes and not every five years like before. A good government is one with many information channels, those that give real time information.“ Yes, the internet is flooded with stupid selfies and stupider emojis, but in the past half a decade, it has also brought down the most stubborn dictatorships and questioned the legitimacy of governments of every hue. ***The Jasmine Revolution in the Middle-East and India Against Corruption (IAC) would not have been half as successful without the mobilising capacity of social media. Many people today wonder if the Jasmine Revolution and IAC achieved anything truly transformative. But no one questions the transformative force of the internet. It is this energy that some governments will most definitely try to calibrate and control.*** [Emphasis added.] It is quite possible that this government has no intention of policing the internet and only wants to harness the full potential of the digital world for its citizens. One can only hope that it stays true to this noble idea the next time someone proposes a variant of Section 66A. Click To Enlarge Click To Enlarge Click To Enlarge -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
