Slashdot Mirror
Clandestine Internet Censorship in India
nooyi86 writes "China and the Middle East block sites in order to suppress political or social dissent. Website blocking in India, on the other hand, is driven by national security-related paranoia, or hate speech that may lead to violence. The state must save its citizens from propaganda of both the extreme right and the extreme left. Shivam Vij has posted a comprehensive profile of Internet censorship in India."
Even the article summary says it - this is not censorship for political means, it is to prevent inciting violence.
I am 100% for "free speech", but even in the US you "can't yell fire in a theater".
In the US you can freely spew "hate speech", and most people ignore it, as they should.
But is there a different standard, based on the local population? Clearly there are some places in the world where the people are culturally less likey to ignore perceived insults. Should the "don't yell fire" rule be adapted for the locale?
In the West you can do something offense like piss christ and not get a village burned down.
Can you say the same where you are? Should you be able to?
Let's see who has the balls to come up with "Piss Mohammed". Ask a certain Danish cartoonist if he would like to try. Ask him if he would like to do it in a village in India.
Everything is not black and white - there are shades of grey and lots of other colors too.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.