Slashdot Mirror

For example in India. If you annoying someone in India through internet media, the Indian police will act on it. It is called the IT Act of India Amended 2008. One example of its application is here: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/15/20100415201004150444035498c0a203/Ecole-Mondiale-staffer-arrested-for-defaming-exBombay-HC-judge.html

(to be read in conjunction with http://techdirt.com/articles/20100718/20510110255.shtml) and failed attempt to ban three school blogs (http://www.techgoss.com/Story/406S11-CERT-refused-to-ban-3-school-blogs.aspx) and finally a case Google Inc USA is fighting in the Delhi court related to the same school.

Schools like this Singapore school which claims that its "genuine" parents are "distressed" by the internet and they needed to do something about it. So they have engaged lawyers, of course paid for by the parents themselves without their consent (or manufactured consent).

Read at Techdirt: Indian School in Singapore sues parent for anonymous comments on his blog

I have been following this for a while. The most recent censorship attempt takes the form of a request to the CERT of India government to ban blogs in Singapore, Malaysia and India:
Techgoss story: Indian school asks CERT to ban three blogs in three countries

View the blogs before they are vaporized ! Archive them at your risk of course !
Blogs under censorship attack: Blog 1, from Singapore which is a "Parents Forum/Blog",
Blog 2, from Malaysia which is a "GIIS Malaysia Parents" blog, and
Blog 3, from India which is a "RSK Parents Forum" blog.

I am sure the school will argue that private education in India needs such drastic measures !

Google appears to be a proud protector of the gmail accounts of China's Human Rights activists, when it says that "Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.".

Is this the same Google which Hands over IP addresses of activists to Indian Police ?

What about Google Sets Censorship Precedent In India ?

Mumbai Cyber Sleuths are a law unto themselves, ordering Americans around: Mumbai Police Order American to delete Cartoon

Why does Google co-operate so tamely with Mumbai Cyber police ? Why did Google hand over IPs in 2007 entangling an innocent man in the Police web ?

And yet talk of Human Rights in China ? Don't the Indians have Human Rights too ?

Just had a brilliant idea...why not Google for a citation ? And this turned up:

"Indian police come knocking at Google's gilded door demanding the IP address (IP uniquely identifies every computer in the world) which is the source of this negative image. Google, India hands over the IP address."

Not impressed ? Read the full monty ... the post at TechGOSS.com.

Within the last few days, slashdot has published internet censorship stories from all these countries.

All of those countries may have differernt motovations, and use different tactics, but the results are similar.

January 01, 2010
China Reaffirms Plans to "Purify" the Internet

> Says crackdown on online pornography is part of overall effort to preserve "national long-term stability," build a "harmonious socialist society," and prevent the "poisoning of young people's physical and mental health," but most likely is all about strengthening its grip on the what could be a dangerous conduit for threatening images and ideas.

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/87485/china-reaffirms-plans-to-purify-the-internet/

January 03, 2010
Your Rights Online: Google Sets Censorship Precedent In India

> "Censorship varies from country to country but India, home to a sixth of the world's population, appears to be shaping up much like China. Not far behind everyone else, Google has increasingly censored websites with an incident where a very popular politician died and Google forcibly deleted and dissolved a group on Orkut where offensive comments about the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh were posted. An official from India's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said, 'If you are doing business here, you should follow the local law, the sentiments of the people, the culture of the country. If somebody starts abusing Lord Rama on a Web site, that could start riots.' The lengthy opinion piece calls attention to the beginnings of a definitive lack of free speech online for Indian citizens. A spokeswoman for the 'Do No Evil' company explained, 'India does value free speech and political speech. But they are weighing the harm of free speech against violence in their streets.'"

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/01/03/0123216/Google-Sets-Censorship-Precedent-In-India

In the USA, I think corporations are behind the censorship. Unethical corporations, and sometimes individuals (possibly backed by corporations), use various legal tricks, and harassment techniques, to remove websites that are not favorable to the interests of those corporations. Sometimes the same corporations have methods of flooding the media with propaganda that is favorable to their interests, or lanching smear campaigns against competiors.

For example, I seem to remember somebody with the initials JVM getting a certain blog removed, and possible arranging a major whitewash on wikipedia. And of course we all remember the harassment of PJ.

Then there was the case of the judge that had three websites removed. I may not care for him personally, but I think the APEX v. tunnelrat case raises some serious issues:

1) When is it right for a judge to expose an anonymous blogger?

2) When is it right for a judge to order a website to be taken down, and personal property (domain name) to be compensated?'

3) Is it illegal to publicly display legal contracts?

4) Does a judge in NJ have jurisdiction over of website that is not hosted in NJ, or owned by a NJ resident?

I don't care what APEX is telling us, or what the court is telling us. The APEX scam is clearly a case of a company bullying a blogger in order to hide information that company finds embarrassing, and maybe even illegal.

The case has been covered on several other sites.

Court orders three H-1B sites disabled
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9142806/Court_orders_three_H_1B_sites_disabled

Legal action PR nightmare
http://www.techgoss.com/Story/2109S14-Legal-action-PR-nightmare.aspx

Your Rights Online: Court Orde