India OKs Censoring Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo

Let them try by arcite · 2012-01-14 02:15 · Score: 5, Insightful

Look, unless they filter and censor every single email, text, data stream ect... it is a complete lost cause. This will just spur innovation in finding methods to avoid the censors such as seen in China.

Re:Let them try by TheReaperD · 2012-01-14 02:18 · Score: 5, Insightful

In addition, India doesn't have a large military policing the policies of the government and courts. Take away search and social media sites and there'd be a revolt by their own citizens.

--
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
Re:Let them try by nurb432 · 2012-01-14 02:18 · Score: 1

Don't put it past them. They can always create their own intranet, with monitored/restricted portals to the global internet. ( or no connection with the outside at all )

--
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Re:Let them try by redmid17 · 2012-01-14 02:20 · Score: 5, Insightful

They could try to create their own intranet. You really think that all the international companies with outsourced work in India are gonna like that? If the Indian government tried that, it would tank their economy.
Re:Let them try by angiasaa · 2012-01-14 03:00 · Score: 5, Interesting

Nah, that would not work. For one thing, Indians have had free rein over their Facebook, Google and twitter accounts since the very beginning. The citizenry will find it way too hard to make the shift from a global to a local platform.
Furthermore, we Indians are used to being relatively uncensored at every turn. The moment we "realize" that the government is actively monitoring every tweet and every post, people will start withdrawing from the services offered.
We have a deep mistrust of our government. It is one thing to force the uneducated into censorship. But those of us who use the internet have at least a basic education, and we don't like the government meddling in any of our affairs. especially if we can't see a justification in it.
What irks many of us, is the fact that the government spends too little of our tax money in the right places. For instance, the roads are potholed, the water services are unreliable. Energy production has crawled into a hole and died. There is hunger and starvation all over the country. The middle and upper classes are the ones who are most impacted by the Governmental organizations. The Police are unreliable.
When an accident occurs, we fear reporting it to the cops because we know that if we do, we're the first to be taken in for questioning and the cops overstep their authority at every turn. You see a guy dying on the street, and passers by will stop just to mull around and stare. Everyone will complain that someone should do something, but no one will consider calling the authorities or helping the poor chap to a hospital because the helper becomes the hunted in the eyes of the authorities.
A friend of mine was put in the slammer for moving the victim of an accident. He was let free four days later because the court decided he was innocent, but he left with bruises and came down with a bad case of diarrhea. The cops actually beat the guy up during their "questioning for facts"! He was just trying to help an injured guy who ended up dying on the way to the hospital.
We love our country, but we hate deeply, those in power who're trying to run it because they don't appear to care for the public.
An alternative website, monitored/restricted or not, will hold even less water in such a country. They might be able to forcefully lock social networks out of the country, but they can't get people to use a government-controlled one.

--
Geekism is your _only_ God!
Re:Let them try by betterunixthanunix · 2012-01-14 03:27 · Score: 1

What China has also demonstrated is that the anti-censorship technologies tend to languish in obscurity as long as the government does not censor too much. There are lots of Tor users in China, but they amount to only a fraction of a percent of the number of Internet users in China. The only major increases in Tor use in China occur just after the government cranks up the firewall, and Chinese government knows this -- they do not even block Tor most of the time, because they do not want to foster popular interest in it.

I suspect that India will either follow China's lead, or eventually arrive at the same conclusions.

--
Palm trees and 8
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 03:34 · Score: 0

a Indian version of AOL from the 90s ?
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 03:36 · Score: 0

Actually: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/09/2320201/inside-the-great-firewall-of-chinas-tor-blocking
So China does block TOR connections.
Re:Let them try by TheGratefulNet · 2012-01-14 03:40 · Score: 1

MOST of what you just wrote, I could have assumed to be written about the US.
how sad (for both of us).
it shows that across the world, people in power are ALL THE SAME. ie, untrustable.

--

--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 03:40 · Score: 3, Informative

You see a guy dying on the street, and passers by will stop just to mull around and stare. Everyone will complain that someone should do something, but no one will consider calling the authorities or helping the poor chap to a hospital because the helper becomes the hunted in the eyes of the authorities.

Sadly I've seen this first-hand. While travelling in India, I became very ill and began to fall down in the street in busy downtown New Delhi. No one stopped to help me (or even mull around and stare). The first two taxis I came to refused to take me to the hospital. When I finally got to a hospital, the doctor said that of course no one wanted to help me, because police would hit up any driver seen with a seriously ill foreigner for bribes.
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 03:53 · Score: 1

I agree. I say Google, yahoo, microsoft, youtube, etc just pull out of those regions all together. Then give them the option of having the sites like THE REST OF THE PLANET, or be without them in thier little bubble.
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 03:59 · Score: 0

SOPA and PIPA are going to allow the US to censor us, and then there will be no place to go.
Re:Let them try by supaneko · 2012-01-14 04:22 · Score: 1

Yeah, except how many Americans would actually switch to another platform knowing that the government is actively monitoring or working on censoring it?

Oh, wait... NEXT TO NONE.

Facebook is the new crack and almost EVERYBODY IS HOOKED. Make any changes and the sheep will just keep chuggin' along, like the media, their "representatives," and everyone else they know does. Most Americans truly are sheep, looking to the great nanny state to tell them what to do next (and no, just because we can sit here and bitch on /. doesn't mean that half of what we say or think actually applies in this new world created by "our" "representatives").

--
Less-geeky computer repair alternative for Lansing, MI
Re:Let them try by supaneko · 2012-01-14 04:23 · Score: 1

It is a shame that anyone should half to endure such tragedy.

However, I find it incredibly honorable and reassuring to know that at least somewhere in the world, there is a massive group of intelligent, open-minded, and decent people who will not let their government step on them so easily.

We Americans could certainly learn from you Indians, and I don't mean that in a tech or web sense. ;)

--
Less-geeky computer repair alternative for Lansing, MI
Re:Let them try by rotorbudd · 2012-01-14 04:44 · Score: 1

Yea, like they are going to cut themselves off from MILLIONS of potential customers.

--
A bullet may have your name on it, but artillery is addressed to " Whom It May concern"
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 05:07 · Score: 4, Insightful

Bullshit! Look I've lived in both US and India (born there , now US citizen). Yes, US has issues, but there is no way you can compare India and US. I was born in poor class Indian family and if I was there, there was no way I would have gotten proper education and lived a decent life. If you have money in india, yes you can live a luxury life by bribing your way out (corruption is part of every day life there!). But if you want to make something of yourself from nothing, USA is still world apart (haven't lived in Europe so don't know much about it). But people who think there is not much difference between USA and India should go live there for few months. Yes, there is lots of drama in US news TV, but at the end of the day, even if you are poor there is respect to human life here. If you are not rich in India, you are pretty much worse than an animal. I'm not an american apologist, America has lots of flaws and issues, but there is no way you can compare it with India/China. Of course, that does not mean we all should be happy, there is always room for improvement. I do not ever want life in USA come anywhere closer to that of India (and I'm not talking about money, just respect for a human being).
Re:Let them try by TheGratefulNet · 2012-01-14 05:07 · Score: 1

short answer: fragmentation of the internet.
we already have darknets and sneakernets.
let the masses be monitored on the internet 1 and 2. we'll start internet4 (skipping 3 since we're so much smarter).
that'll last for a little while.

--

--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 05:24 · Score: 1

Who needs these stupid motherfuckers on these sites anyway,
I think it's a question of "want" not "need." You want their money. Sure, you can do without it, but when someone wants to run an ad targeting Indians and you have to tell the potential customer, "sorry, we don't get many Indian impressions anymore," that makes you a sad salesman.
You go home with less money because you didn't get the Bollywood movie ad order, the wife decides no BJ for you, you cheat on her, get caught, break up, your kid grows up in two homes as a pawn where each parent uses her as a weapon against the other, she's disillusioned and grows up to be just the kind of floozy that you had previously used when you weren't getting BJs from your wife, she gets Herpes, and one day there you are on your deathbed and your daughter is looking down at you. You remember only sad times as you try to ignore her "cold sores" and think to yourself, "I didn't need a better life, but I wanted one."
Re:Let them try by xero314 · 2012-01-14 05:26 · Score: 1

I think the word you are looking for here is Billions.
Re:Let them try by milkasing · 2012-01-14 05:41 · Score: 4, Interesting

Freedom of speech in India is far weaker that what most Indians think it is. Prominent people are regularly arrested for exercising free speech, by making speeches, making politically incorrect statements, burning copies of the constitution, writing articles, etc)
To take a recent example, an opposition leader who played a part in exposing India's largest corruption case, has an arrest warrant out on him because he wrote this article in July Analysis: How to wipe out Islamic terror (the article seems to have been removed from the online version of the newspaper itself)
Censorship does not directly affect most people in India not because of free speech protections (which are very weak), but because the government is not strong enough to impose it on everyone.
The threat to internet freedom is not from and Indian version of the great wall of china, but from the possibility that, to protect their business opportunities in India, Internet companies will bend over to accommodate the govt of India. If history is any indication, the people in India will protest very loudly for a few days, then get distracted by the latest celebrity scandal . Ultimately they will adjust to one less freedom (the infamous attitude we term as "Chalta Hai") and forget about it.
Re:Let them try by djlowe · 2012-01-14 05:43 · Score: 1

It is one thing to force the uneducated into censorship. But those of us who use the internet have at least a basic education, and we don't like the government meddling in any of our affairs.
You're quite a bigot. Do you cross the street to avoid the unclean, too?
Re:Let them try by interval1066 · 2012-01-14 05:50 · Score: 1

MOST of what you just wrote, I could have assumed to be written about the US.
Not true. I have my own issues with the country but making up lies is kinda useless as well. When some one is lying in the streets, he gets help. Energy production is a top priority here, without it businesses would not put up with it. You do not get thrown in jail for helping some one. The police get in trouble here all the time for corruption and over reach. So, essentially, none of his points were accurate with regard to the US.

--
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 05:58 · Score: 0

Except that China and India represent a third of the worlds population. That leaves them with Europe, North America, Australasia and a very small portion of Africa and South America to market to... Realistically, China and India probably represent half the worlds internet users!
Re:Let them try by hihihihi · 2012-01-14 06:18 · Score: 3, Interesting

ain't it is still amazing somehow democracy still survives... even if on lifesupport.
not long ago this same govt. tried to suspend constitution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emergency_(India), they tried and somehow common sense prevailed.though now it is many time more subtle but concentrated effort (media + judiciary + political setup) all trying same thing... and i still think still we can survive. not because there is something inherent in setup, but just that our "authoritahs" are weak and nothing survives shit like a weak authority and high diversity makes it impossible to form any monolithic force in india.
Judiciary (which was the last group to support govt. decision to block the "evilz" recently) is unequipped to do anything other then trying to save their own image (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37972).
Media... the "think of the children" ones (NDTV, Bannet Colman, HindTimes etc.) work accordingly to their political friends, but the problem is masses have stopped listening to them more or less. as far as "world ends on 21Dec" type media is concerned... well they are more concerned on circus then bread.
Govt... i need not even start..
in 1975, it was govt vs. media+judiciary. this time it will be more of disgruntled public vs. failing govt.
in 1975, the govt. was claiming we have just attained freedom from the britain so people are destitue... this time all they can do is play blame game which will not help anyone.
not sure how correct i am, though sure i hope this "china is the way to go" plan fails.

--
everyone downmodding this post will be prosecuted for reading my post without first buying a license!!!
Re:Let them try by theswimmingbird · 2012-01-14 06:20 · Score: 1

Are you sure you don't live in America? It sure sounds like it.
Re:Let them try by hihihihi · 2012-01-14 06:29 · Score: 1

It is one thing to force the uneducated into censorship. But those of us who use the internet have at least a basic education, and we don't like the government meddling in any of our affairs.
You're quite a bigot. Do you cross the street to avoid the unclean, too?
may i ask why exactly is he a bigot?
censorship is easy if the people censored are illeterate. i consider it a fact and not just theory.
read all the links if you wish: https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=literacy+and+censorship
and it is not that powers (religious/ political/ financial) since time immortal have not tried to keep people illeterate by imposing censorship!

--
everyone downmodding this post will be prosecuted for reading my post without first buying a license!!!
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 07:02 · Score: 0

Substitute "people" for "Americans" are you are more accurate. It isn't like the rest of the planet is full of totally enlightened people who know how things work. "Americans" certainly don't have the monoploly on this, and there are other countries where the citizens have even less access to information and are truly kept in the dark. You can talk about how Americans are just dumb sheep, but when an American leader dies, there are not articles in the paper about how animals are lamenting his passing all over the country (North Korea) .
Re:Let them try by DNS-and-BIND · 2012-01-14 07:07 · Score: 0

We have a deep mistrust of our government. It is one thing to force the uneducated into censorship. But those of us who use the internet have at least a basic education, and we don't like the government meddling in any of our affairs. especially if we can't see a justification in it.
What irks many of us, is the fact that the government spends too little of our tax money in the right places.
So, in other words, in America you would be Teabaggers. Excuse me if I totally ignore your viewpoint. You're a rightwing nutbag and your views have no place in civilized society./i

--
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 07:22 · Score: 0

In addition, India doesn't have a large military policing the policies of the government and courts. Take away search and social media sites and there'd be a revolt by their own citizens.
India doesn't have a miniscule military........it's quite large
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_armed_forces
Go through the link before calling it small.
The Govt. of India can make laws but it cannot enforce them...........they really suck at that!!!
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 07:25 · Score: 0

Well just fine by me but can we also filter their people and send them back as well talk about making a bit of breathing space
Re:Let them try by hihihihi · 2012-01-14 07:44 · Score: 1

if you see GP stmt. he clearly said "a large military policing the policies of the government and courts" and he is right.
india do not have any precedent where any policy (be it good or bad (for varying valus of good or bad)) was ever policed by the military. good or bad, but thats the way it is.

--
everyone downmodding this post will be prosecuted for reading my post without first buying a license!!!
Re:Let them try by kkwst2 · 2012-01-14 08:07 · Score: 1

Hah, sounds like a scene from Austin Powers.
Re:Let them try by cayenne8 · 2012-01-14 08:29 · Score: 1

Doesn't sound like they will be making money...unless all these companies was to drop their business plans, and reprogram a ton of code...just to cater to the lowest denominator.
And if they did that...they'd likely start losing customers from the rest of the world...

--
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 08:42 · Score: 0

That's besides the point. The content that the government wants censored is hate speech, which primarily originates from within the country. The government is not trying prevent Indians from getting "corrupted" by the internet. A free intranet will probably be even worse.
Re:Let them try by milkasing · 2012-01-14 10:22 · Score: 1

The army does not maintain law and order. The police does. And India's police force is woefully undermanned.
ahref=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_size_of_police_forcesrel=url2html-26389http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_size_of_police_forces>
What to look for: not the total size (given billion+ people and all that it has to be large) but Police per 100,000 people.
Re:Let them try by MrNthDegree · 2012-01-14 10:44 · Score: 1

and India will lose millions of modern-day services, which the people will demand and the government will be forced to provide....
Re:Let them try by indian_rediff · 2012-01-14 11:00 · Score: 1

This article also got Subramanian Swamy taken off the Harvard School professorship. No explanation offered. There was an online petition or two that got the support of many Harvard students and some of the staff. Harvard did not explain anything other than saying that the publication of the article.
My suspicion is that this has happened only because SS is not an American. Noam Chonsky of MIT has held similar firebrand views in the US - but his political views have not had him fired - because he is a Computer Science professor.
SS was a professor of Economics at Harvard - his article had nothing to do with Economics.
Censorship in the US anyone?
Indian Rediff
P.S. I suspect this will get me a Troll moderation - but please, read what I am saying a little dispassionately before rating me a troll. I am NOT supporting SS - but I DO support his right to free speech.

--
All views my own. Anyone else with the same views needs to have his/her head examined.
Re:Let them try by afgam28 · 2012-01-14 11:30 · Score: 1

Are you serious? Less than 10% of Indians are online; most of their population lives in poverty. Indians aren't going to start a revolution because a small percentage of them can't poke each other on Facebook.
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 12:07 · Score: 0

Your comment outright racist.
Re:Let them try by oiron · 2012-01-14 16:16 · Score: 1

Along with most civilized countries, the Indian defense forces are just that; defense forces (for the most part, anyway, leaving aside Kashmir and the North West, where the forces have special powers to deal with the insurgency). They are not generally used for policing. Even if they were, they would truly suck at it. They're set up to deal with other militaries, and maybe with paramilitary infiltrators on the borders (i.e., terrorists in Kashmir). They have no investigative or crowd control capacity.
There are paramilitary police forces; notably the Central Reserve Police Forces, the Home Guards, and one or two others. But they mostly perform similar functions to the US Marshals, or other federal agencies in the US. Unlike the military, they don't have the equipment to become a ruling force. Also, their roles are separated into different agencies. Local law enforcement is in the hands of state and municipal police forces, which are state government controlled (law and order is a state subject under the constitution), and various other functions like industrial security (for power plants, for example) are provided by the centre. None of these agencies really interfere each other, even though they're all technically "the Police". This can sometimes be a problem, but in this case, it's a good thing!
Re:Let them try by oiron · 2012-01-14 16:26 · Score: 1

Revolution? No... We don't think like the Middle East. We're more likely to work around laws than to get them overturned violently. On the other hand, it would be impossible to enforce.
Consider, 10% of the Indian population is One Hundred Million People. The smarter, more educated 100 million. The class from among whom the enforcers would have to be drawn. You think it's going to be easy (or possible) to close the cracks on that?
Besides, mobile penetration has reached a whopping 73%, which is better than China, and in absolute terms, is far far more than the US. This is anecdotal, but i've seen agricultural day-wage earners, stevedores, bus drivers - generally the poorest groups, having some pretty decent instruments. A phone and its connection can cost a little less than two dollars a month, and call charges are in the cents. With that mobile penetration, do you really think that internet penetration is going to be far off? We're just taking a different route to it; through the mobile, rather than the desktop.
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 17:57 · Score: 0

Do you support the ideas in that article? if you do you contradicts your self, these ideas are anti-democracy, anti-secular, anti-free speech and anti-minority, wants India to transform in to a religious state.
Re:Let them try by afgam28 · 2012-01-14 19:47 · Score: 1

All I'm saying is that I doubt India's military/police will suddenly be fighting against anti-Internet-censorship revolutionaries, as the previous poster suggested. I'm as against Internet censorship as anyone but let's be realistic here.
In China there's a Great Firewall and it's really annoying but if you have some basic technical knowledge you can find a proxy or tunnel around the problem. Some people have started local clones of sites like Google, Facebook and Youtube (Baidu, Renren and YouKu). For nearly all of the middle class, this is a "good enough" compromise.
As you said, Indians are more likely to work around the laws like the Chinese have. The smarter 100 million aren't going to revolt and risk their relatively comfortable lifestyles for more Internet freedom.
If India continues on this path to censorship it will probably end up like China. It's not a great outcome, but realistically it's probably what will happen.
Re:Let them try by shutdown+-p+now · 2012-01-14 19:48 · Score: 1

Do you support the ideas in that article? if you do you contradicts your self, these ideas are anti-democracy, anti-secular, anti-free speech and anti-minority, wants India to transform in to a religious state.
A wise women once wrote, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
Re:Let them try by stephanruby · 2012-01-14 19:49 · Score: 1

And in a tit-for-tat retaliatory move, since India may be blocking large for-profit campaign-contributing US corporations, the US (either through treaty or through an executive order) will start imposing economic sanctions back on India and will start blocking the phone lines and the ip addresses (from the US) of the more influential non-US corporations that are based in India.
Re:Let them try by chilvence · 2012-01-14 20:03 · Score: 1

Thanks. I felt lonely in my world view until I read this...
Re:Let them try by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-15 06:08 · Score: 0

because they have that much freedom on the rest of the planet.
even without SOPA the situation is pretty bad.
you're outraged because it's 'theirs'
let see when they do the 'think of the children' argument on you

Drastic measures by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:17 · Score: 5, Funny

To prevent public outrage caused by India's current cricket scores

Re:Drastic measures by knuthin · 2012-01-14 02:24 · Score: 1

Indian on Slashdot! :o

--
Some apps are WYSIWYG. Some others are WYSIWTF.
Re:Drastic measures by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-01-14 02:51 · Score: 2, Funny

ff there are so many crickets in India, Indians should keep frogs as pets. It also has the added benefit of being a food source and it could further Indian-French relations (I'm sure there are many Indian restaurant in France already, so let's reciprocate.)

--
Ezekiel 23:20
Re:Drastic measures by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:52 · Score: 0

Make that two.
Re:Drastic measures by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 04:47 · Score: 0

Australian?
Re:Drastic measures by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 12:17 · Score: 0

Indians should keep frogs as pets. It also has the added benefit of being a food source and it could further Indian-French relations
I not so sure that relationship will end well. Instead it will end well made, with lots of garlic.
Re:Drastic measures by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 18:34 · Score: 0

ff there are so many crickets in India, Indians should keep frogs as pets. It also has the added benefit of being a food source and it could further Indian-French relations (I'm sure there are many Indian restaurant in France already, so let's reciprocate.)
'Cricket' as in cricket, the sport
Re:Drastic measures by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-16 02:52 · Score: 0

"there are many Indian restaurant in France" Was that sarcastic? The most irritating thing about the myth of French cuisine, is that it's really hard to get any thing other than French cuisine. A month in France leaves me gagging for an Indian curry, a rump steak, a Thai curry, sushi, a lamb roast and something Chinese with too much MSG in it in that approximate order.

Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Business by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:18 · Score: 2, Interesting

It's crazy that slashdot and other people have some notion of western free speech that is universal and ingrained in human nature.

Why is it so strange that other people in other places might have a different idea than you about censorship?

Really, if you are not Indian, it doesn't concern you. Stay out of other people's internal affairs.

Which sites? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:19 · Score: 0

Pretty useless story without telling us which sites will be blocked. I'm thinking Facebook.

Basic Human Rights by nurb432 · 2012-01-14 02:21 · Score: 2

I personally feel we can butt in to another countries business if they are violating basic human rights. As we all live on the same planet there are some base level standards and the rest of the world should intervene when those lines are crossed.

Now that said, is free speech a basic right? Perhaps, but internet use sure isn't.

--
---- Booth was a patriot ----

Re:Basic Human Rights by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:26 · Score: 1

What difference does the medium make? Would it be any different if they were disallowing particular books rather than particular websites?
Re:Basic Human Rights by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:40 · Score: 0

Well, actually, we're acutely aware that the reason we rose out of colonialism is taht we exercised the freedoms of the press and speech and organized a revolution against our colonial masters. I se eyou propose to deem good a country wehre everyone has food and water and no personal freedoms? Having been both, I'd rather be, and have chosen to be poor and free rather than comfortable and not. My job in Dubai's probably opening again.
Re:Basic Human Rights by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:54 · Score: 1

In my mind, no. Freedom of speech is ESSENTIAL for free society. If you aren't free then you aren't much better than a slave.
Re:Basic Human Rights by oztiks · 2012-01-14 03:02 · Score: 1

I'm talking about intervention from another nation. You can't take the high road on one issue yet ignore the other - to do that is disingenuous.
As for living the poor life, I speak from experience as well knowing that on the streets of india new borne babies die of starvation every single day.
Re:Basic Human Rights by angiasaa · 2012-01-14 03:03 · Score: 2

Free speech is a basic right. And that would include the written word as well. Internet usage is not a right however, but I think you do have a point there. There are some lines that should not be crossed, and they're doing just that.

--
Geekism is your _only_ God!
Re:Basic Human Rights by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 03:40 · Score: 0

France intervened on behalf of colonial America against the British. Thanks largely to the efforts of Benjamin Franklin.
Re:Basic Human Rights by oztiks · 2012-01-14 03:49 · Score: 1

America intervened at Vietnam and look how that turned out.
Startrek had it right and what the USA needs to do is replace their first amendment with the prime directive.
And come on Americans wipe their ass on freedom of speech all the time, look at Ron Pauls campaign for GOP.
Re:Basic Human Rights by similar_name · 2012-01-14 04:13 · Score: 1

India is a democracy. We really don't need to butt in. It's not a dictatorship, they choose their politicians. Unfortunately a democracy doesn't have to guarantee rights. In fact, subverting rights in a democracy is not all that hard. You just have to say something something terrorists something something children
Re:Basic Human Rights by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 04:16 · Score: 0

No, you're talking out of your ass.
Re:Basic Human Rights by oztiks · 2012-01-14 04:26 · Score: 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India
Don't worry though bro, the indian outsourced call centres will eventually make it too US shores soon enough... All in the name of intervention.
Re:Basic Human Rights by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 05:05 · Score: 1

Well, who holds the gun to their head and demands that they make babies that will starve to death? I've never understood that particular flavor of stupidity. "Gee, life is tough, I'm starving, poor, and disease-ridden --- let's make babies!!!"
Re:Basic Human Rights by russotto · 2012-01-14 06:17 · Score: 1

America intervened at Vietnam and look how that turned out.
Hmm. US intervenes in Vietnam, Vietnam gets a totalitarian Communist government. Had the US failed to intervene, Vietnam would have gotten... oh, right, a totalitarian Communist government. Korea at least turned out half-better.

Startrek had it right and what the USA needs to do is replace their first amendment with the prime directive.
More honored in the breach than the observance on the original Star Trek.
Re:Basic Human Rights by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 07:02 · Score: 0

When infant mortality is high, all animals have larger litters. Evens it out.
Did you even think about the words you wrote for more than 5 seconds? You really are not an intelligent person.
Re:Basic Human Rights by oztiks · 2012-01-14 13:54 · Score: 1

Are we talking the Vietnam war or Korean war? Oh that's right the Korean conflict ... Sorry ... Another war where the US failed it's mission.
Don't give me the consolation prize speach either, US is supposed to be the worlds most powerful country remember?
Re:Basic Human Rights by russotto · 2012-01-14 17:47 · Score: 1

Are we talking the Vietnam war or Korean war? Oh that's right the Korean conflict ... Sorry ... Another war where the US failed it's mission.
True, but if the US hadn't taken it on, the whole peninsula would be what the North is today.

Don't give me the consolation prize speach either, US is supposed to be the worlds most powerful country remember?
Not so powerful as to be able to win a land war with China on their own doorstep.
Re:Basic Human Rights by oztiks · 2012-01-14 18:42 · Score: 1

Well here is my gripe okay, the US has a few more years left in it before china takes the scene.
How can one preach capitalism as the best way to live if their biggest outstanding debt is owed to a communist nation. I'm no commy but unless that changes inevitability will show its ugly face.
Start listening to Ron Paul, he has what some may call pub politics but 1 maybe 2 more terms of the same shit that's already at play and the dollar which is already pretty shit will sink and that 14 trillion debt will so be 20 / 30 trillion, it may or may not start a war but it will turn the USA into the country everyone outsources too.
Here is some perspective 8 per hr will get a good Indian developer. 3 years ago same quality was 30 per hour out of the US. Now I can obtain development labor out of the US for 20 at the same level. India is now asking for payment in our currency not caring about the USD anymore ... Soon I'll have to pay 8 my own currency too keep my team, that equates to nearly 10 us ph.
Devaluing to USD any further and presto all of a sudden your having Japanese cars made in the states (started to already happen), call centers opening up in the states needing to speak Asian languages ... 5 - 10 years max.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:22 · Score: 0

It's crazy that slashdot and other people have some notion of western free speech that is universal and ingrained in human nature.

Why is it so strange that other people in other places might have a different idea than you about censorship?

Really, if you are not Indian, it doesn't concern you. Stay out of other people's internal affairs.

Gee how un-American of you.... Fancy not sticking your noses where they don't belong!

Get over it! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:22 · Score: 0

Just get over the fact that people are bound to be offensive. It's easier to not get offended. Oops, I bet that was offensive - My ethnic origin is India, and I have always wondered why we were so caught up in what other people think of our individual beliefs. Too emotional!

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by ElBeano · 2012-01-14 02:25 · Score: 4, Insightful

Sure, let Indians have their say, but don't expect us to shut up and mind our own business. The world is far too small for that now. I'm pretty sure many Indians don't agree with you.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:26 · Score: 0

So you are cool with Taliban-run Afghanistan then?

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by fnj · 2012-01-14 02:28 · Score: 1

Sorry, "We hold these truths to be self-evident". Sound familiar? We really do mean self-evident. Not just for western white middle class people. We don't think we can lay the law down for India and the rest of the world, and you can ignore us, but not all of us are going to shut up. You know what you can do with your imperative which is essentially to tell us to shut up.

Having said that, India is Indians' country, for sure. Have a ball.

The end of the social bubble by koan · 2012-01-14 02:32 · Score: 3, Insightful

Each region will censor social sites then no doubt create their own sites leaving no truly World wide social sites, perhaps even so far as to create walled gardens for each region with little crosstalk in social, commerce, or informational sites.

--
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."

Re:The end of the social bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:42 · Score: 1

The parent makes a very interesting point. What if it isn't free speech that scares government - what if its the global interconnection - and the threat of that eroding the real life "walled garden."
Re:The end of the social bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:49 · Score: 0

Governments have enforced borders for centuries now, preventing among other things people to meet freely. How could we have expected that the most conservative won't budge when websites allow free, unlimited communications over these borders?
This is just the same old problem of governments keeping their mittens on their people, nothing else.
Re:The end of the social bubble by Nerdfest · 2012-01-14 03:13 · Score: 3, Interesting

End of the social bubble? Basically that would be the end of the age of open communication we used to be headed for. Thanks do draconian governments and corporations, we seem to be headed towards a new form of 'Dark Ages'.
Re:The end of the social bubble by orphiuchus · 2012-01-14 04:16 · Score: 1

Well, to play devils advocate, the end of the walled garden is going to let the neighbors dog in. China is already paying people to make phony pro-government posts all over the internet, and within 10 years every single shithole in the world will be spreading propaganda in every corner of the internet. How do you prevent foreign interests from manipulating your population over the internet?
Do I agree with censorship to prevent this this? Of course not. I'm just trying to understand the fears driving these governments.
Re:The end of the social bubble by koan · 2012-01-14 05:32 · Score: 1

"How do you prevent foreign interests from manipulating your population over the internet?"
Ideally through an education that allows people to make up their own minds, and though "education" could be considered a form of propaganda I mean an education that is open and teaches people to think for themselves.
Of course that requires your society being one that free thinking people want to support =)
The easier way is better propaganda on our side, you have to admit it's pretty hard to beat Hollywood's propaganda since it's so entertaining.

--
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Re:The end of the social bubble by koan · 2012-01-14 05:35 · Score: 2

We aren't headed for it it has always been this way, The Power That Be can not have open and easy communication for the masses, it thwarts what they want to do which is control and manipulate, so the Internet is the first things that I can think of where anyone can have a webpage and share their thoughts and experiences with everyone in the World.
Not even books did that.

--
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Re:The end of the social bubble by koan · 2012-01-14 05:37 · Score: 1

Wow, terribly written but I hope you get my drift there.

--
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Re:The end of the social bubble by orphiuchus · 2012-01-14 06:07 · Score: 1

To be fair, Hollywood's propaganda isn't really pro-US, its mostly just pro-Democrat.
Yea, old Hollywood was pro-US, but those days are long over. One of the most common villains in movies these days is the corrupt Republican Senator.
Re:The end of the social bubble by koan · 2012-01-14 07:59 · Score: 1

Hollywood's propaganda is pro war/pro Irrael no one in power cares about the "American dream? or the USA/Constitution, that's a magic phrase the use to make you feel good.

--
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Re:The end of the social bubble by koan · 2012-01-14 08:00 · Score: 1

Irrael = Israel.

--
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."

People or government by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:38 · Score: 0

Why is it so strange that other people in other places might have a different idea than you about censorship?

We're not talking about the people's wishes but a Government's.

Or are you suggesting that the Indian peoples want censorship?

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by methamorph · 2012-01-14 02:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

Really, if you are not Indian, it doesn't concern you. Stay out of other people's internal affairs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came%E2%80%A6
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-01-14 02:48 · Score: 4, Insightful

Really, if you are not Indian, it doesn't concern you. Stay out of other people's internal affairs.

If I saw my neigbour abusing his wife, I'd probably call the police and not claim that it's "someone else's internal affair". If there are people there in India who suffer for some reason, you can't expect me to feel indifferent.

--
Ezekiel 23:20

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:51 · Score: 0

You are cool with women being forced to marry their rapists? How civilized of you.

Sanction the fuck out of them so they starve to death. The planet is too over-populated anyway. That goes for India too.

Fuckers have nuclear weapons and can't even feed their people, and are still running around with class system bullshit like "untouchables".

How backwards-assed can you get?

Looks like SOPA passed in India! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 02:57 · Score: 0

This is where the US is headed with SOPA/PIPA.

Re:Looks like SOPA passed in India! by Frankie70 · 2012-01-14 03:09 · Score: 3, Interesting

Only difference is that the Indians aren't clever enough to create terms like SOPA/PIPA such that the common public is blissfully unaware of what's happening.
Re:Looks like SOPA passed in India! by mehrotra.akash · 2012-01-14 04:17 · Score: 1

More than that, internet penetration and awareness is not high enough to form a vocal majority against such acts
Re:Looks like SOPA passed in India! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 07:13 · Score: 0

Oh but the government is way smarter about SOPA in India. They just ensure that you can't use the internet to do anything even legitimate. Ever heard of termination fees for the internet ? We have it. If an Indian ISP terminated it's connection on another ISP. (I.e. I download data from you and you are on a different ISP my ISP has to pay your ISP for terminating the data at your end!). This happens with websites and clients a lot. So essentially you have a censored web with very limited speeds and very little practical value in India. Therefore the adoption of internet slows down. This happy rule applies only to Indian ISPs. So I can download what I want from foreign ISPs and not be subject to this crap. However the exit points out of India are controlled by very few gateways which are all licensed and heavily monitored. Oh the Indian ISPs will sell your soul in a jiffy much much much worse than the US ISP's. They have used the above termination charges to justify a fair use rule which applies to Indian and non Indian ISPs. It's some ridiculously low 10 or 25 gb. Welcome to the real world. India is a totalitarian shit hole. It's no better than China in any sense, democracy or otherwise. The government exists to protect the sudo-gandhi family and their wealth in swiss banks.
Re:Looks like SOPA passed in India! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-15 06:02 · Score: 0

Only difference is that the Indians aren't clever enough to create terms like SOPA/PIPA such that the common public is blissfully unaware of what's happening.
Indians are very clever and smart people. Look at silicon valley and Wallstreet. And if you don't know what are the internal problems facing this country, then don't give your 2 cents.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by sanman2 · 2012-01-14 03:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

Anonymous Coward wrote:

"It's crazy that slashdot and other people have some notion of western free speech that is universal and ingrained in human nature. Why is it so strange that other people in other places might have a different idea than you about censorship? Really, if you are not Indian, it doesn't concern you. Stay out of other people's internal affairs."

I'm Indian - who the hell are you to speak for all of us, and tell others not to comment? Anyone can comment on anything they like. It's called Freedom, and you seem to be ignorant of the concept. You wouldn't happen to be a Supreme Court Justice, would you? Why don't you post under your real name, instead of as an Anonymous Coward?

In police states like Pakistan and China, the courts are used to harass and suppress political opponents. Now you'd like that to happen in India, too. And you're defending this by manufacturing some kind of pretext based on cultural differences?

Get stuffed and get lost.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 03:04 · Score: 0

I suppose we should have stayed out of their polio troubles and let people keep dying or being crippled by a horrible disease.

When India finds another planet to put itself on then they can say what they do is no business of anyone else on Earth.

It's a money issue by no-body · 2012-01-14 03:26 · Score: 1

Trying to squeeze deep pockets for dough.
I withhold the details how this works or why it failed.

This is great news by Karmashock · 2012-01-14 03:27 · Score: 1

The worst thing that could happen is Google etc cooperating with these governments to shut the internet down. Now the Indian government is fighting with them which will force Google etc to fight back. That creates a situation where freedom is actually best likely to survive. The indian government can't do anything without the cooperation of these companies. Even if they had it they might not succeed. But without them its totally hopeless. And by going in this direction google is put in the position of treating these entities as hostiles to be defeated.

So the whole thing is great. I love it.

--
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.

Shill posting by betterunixthanunix · 2012-01-14 03:30 · Score: 1

Oh look, the paid shills are out in full force. Freedom of speech is an internationally recognized human right:

https://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

...and what happens when the rest of the world ignores human rights violations? Things like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide

--
Palm trees and 8

Re:Shill posting by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 04:07 · Score: 0

And things like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny
And this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust
To be fair, we tried to ignore the second one up until Japan decided to attack us for no reason.

Action against political dissidents by Vijaysj · 2012-01-14 03:31 · Score: 2

Civil society in India agitating against corruption in 2011 made use of social networking and SMS's to mobilize large crowd Janlokpal

The party in power has been attacking every communication medium used by the agitators since. Sending of bulk SMS's was prohibited immediately after their agitation in august/Sept SMS. Phone network was down in mumbai during their protest meet in December. Their Facebook page was removed in Sept/Oct.

At a particular time during the August agitation the government was virtually under siege in Dehli with peaceful protesters turning up in front of the parliament and parliamentarian's house in large number. Requiring the government to shut down train stops and bus services to prevent protesters from gathering at the hotspots.

The attack against Facebook, Orkut, SMS etc. is the response of the party in power. They are attacking the communication medium used by protesters under one pretext or other.

--
To Share Is To care

Re:Action against political dissidents by hihihihi · 2012-01-14 06:35 · Score: 1

replying to compensate for mod points... factually correct.

--
everyone downmodding this post will be prosecuted for reading my post without first buying a license!!!

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 03:41 · Score: 0

Where do you draw the line here? Would you be fine if they murdered one in ten of their citizens? One in two? All of them? Mind your own business and ignore genocide? Your argument as it stands doesn't provide a way to distinguish between things we should and should not 'mind our business about' and therefore is drivel by reductio ad absurdem.

Block the government by sgt+scrub · 2012-01-14 03:46 · Score: 2

Everytime a site hears a government say, "we should censor [insert website here]", they should respond with an immediate blanket ip block on the addresses for the government in that country. Google, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Bing all should have blocked the IP addresses of the U.S. government as soon as they mentioned they were forming bills to sensor them.

--
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.

Re:Block the government by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 05:19 · Score: 0

That's the problem. Most senators don't even use the Internet. They just think it's like TV, but illegal content.

Incorrect title and summary by bakuun · 2012-01-14 03:59 · Score: 1

The title states "India OKs censorship...", but the article "only" states: "A trial court in New Delhi on Friday ordered that summons be served in the criminal case to officials at all 21 companies at their foreign headquarters’ addresses." As far as I can see, no decisions have been taken, and nobody has been told to start censoring anything. The fact that they are calling in representatives for these IT companies is worrying, certainly, but it does not mean that anything else has been decided.

Re:Incorrect title and summary by mehrotra.akash · 2012-01-14 04:19 · Score: 1

http://www.mit.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/GSR314E_10511(1).pdf
See section 3(2(b))

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 04:02 · Score: 0

I for one stand together with our Indian brothers and sisters in their quest for intellectual freedom and the right to control their own destiny. For too long stateless corporate entities combined with needless government control have sought to pit one group of peoples against the other. Free thinkers need to stick together; an attack on one is an attack on us all.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by kdemetter · 2012-01-14 04:11 · Score: 1

It's not wrong to believe that what's bad for you , must be bad for someone else also , and therefore not wishing it upon that other person.
It's called the Golden Rule , and it concerns every breathing thing on the planet.

People in different places have different opinions. But that also includes us ( strange that you don't want to enforce freedom of expression on them, but you have no problem enforcing it on us. Did you ever consider that us and them might be the same ).

--
Slipping shoelaces ?

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by mehrotra.akash · 2012-01-14 04:14 · Score: 2

So you are saying slashdot is US ONLY?
Issues relating to other countries should not be discussed here?
Perhaps you should have seen India in the title and not opened the article itself?

That way lies tyranny by SteveFoerster · 2012-01-14 04:30 · Score: 2

Using this same logic, if your neighbour is brutally beating his kids you just think that's their problem and other people should mind their own business? Countries are just lines on a map. We're all human, and we should stand up for one another against abuses like this no matter where they occur.

--
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org

You can't vlock Google in India! by toriver · 2012-01-14 04:36 · Score: 1

That would kill the Indian software industry dead! How else are the workers supposed to find code examples to copy and paste? Asking on mailing lists take too long, even though they send reminders half an hour after posting the question!

India is a shithole by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 04:49 · Score: 0

It really is.
And I say that as an Indian.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by TheGratefulNet · 2012-01-14 05:10 · Score: 1

otoh, isn't this 'buttinsky-ism' what got us into decades of trouble in the middle east? and other places??

sometimes, I'm not so sure you want to make someone else's problems your problems. it does NOT always work or go down well.

and its also not black and white all the time. the 'neighbor beating his wife' example is an extreme but that does not justify all intrusions into other cultures' affairs.

tl;dr: IT DEPENDS.

--

--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 05:13 · Score: 0

guy, though am not the concerned AC, the moment you burped AC to post with real username, you stink. all sites keeps AC as a posting feature due to some reason. freedom of opinon by AC also is of paramount value, I dont think he is forcing his idea through your throat, its just his idea he profess.

I know your emotions are running high, uselessly, but if the likes of you used those emotions in real world than social networking sites, we would have a better country.

dont blame Indian system for things like these, they are copying it from big brother who gave them those ideas. see the divorce laws, women right laws and a lot of gender politics going on. you really think its us uplift poor women ? they are just copy pasting policies from USA without understanding whats the internal affairs of USA these days.

now a days, youngster does not live real life, they live pure virutal life. the world is controled in a totally new way young boy now, our policies just got changed and you have no grasp of it.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by St.Creed · 2012-01-14 05:15 · Score: 1

You're censoring my internet. I do happen to drop by in India and China from time to time. This shit applies to me as well.

Apart from that, I know a lot of Indians who are just as unhappy about this as I am. And don't tell me the people implementing this are implementing the "will of the majority". They're just implementing 'minority clique hanging on to power, lesson 1' and you know it. The sole Indians who should cheer this on are the ones profiting from it. That leaves 99% of the Indians on my side.

--
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)

Regulating big business. by MindlessAutomata · 2012-01-14 05:28 · Score: 1

It's a good thing that a government finally stood up to regulate some of these big businesses. I'm glad to see that these big corporations aren't in the pocket book of Indian politicians... too bad this could never happen hear in America, where these companies would just hire lobbyists to prevent this from occurring. This is why we need to completely remove all business influence from American politics.

Re:Regulating big business. by bbecker23 · 2012-01-14 05:49 · Score: 0

It's a good thing that a government finally stood up to regulate some of these big businesses. I'm glad to see that these big corporations aren't in the pocket book of Indian politicians... too bad this could never happen hear in America, where these companies would just hire lobbyists to prevent this from occurring. This is why we need to completely remove all business influence from American politics.
The sweet, sweet irony of your username is lost on no one.

--
cat /dev/random > sig.txt

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 05:34 · Score: 0

That is different. The motivation for the Middle East, was to help them claim things there in the guise of "helping". It was not to help the actual neighbor.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by DanielRavenNest · 2012-01-14 05:59 · Score: 1

India has nuclear bombs, and rockets capable of reaching orbit, therefore ballistic missiles that reach less than orbit. Therefore we have a self interest in making sure they have a civilized government which won't use them. Free speech is one of the tools to help maintain a civilized government, therefore that is also in our self interest to encourage it. Now you shut up.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 06:20 · Score: 0

I'm Indian. I don't want censorship, nor does anyone else I know. Our corrupt government does, not us citizens.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 06:30 · Score: 0

It's abuse in your opinion. It might be meting out justice to the sinful woman according to the law of $deity to which your neighbors subscribe.

It's difficult, after all, to understand the mores of ones neighbors, especially when they're of a radically different culture. Having grown into womanhood on an island of hedonists, I personally find it difficult to understand the American fascination with oppressing the beauty of human pleasure by forcing women, against all that is natural, to wear clothes. Where I come from, it's considered polite to show up drunk, stoned, and naked for work: it shows that you and your employer agree that happiness (as Aristotle put it) is the highest ethical good. Yet, after many years living under America's repressive, fundamentalist regime, I've come to accept that Americans have different values, and that repressing women is simply part of American culture. Women in America not only accept this repression but even claim it as a moral imperative: there's no harsher judge of a woman who freely enjoys life than another woman who uses her repression (clothing, sobriety, chastity) to justify her own sense of self-worth, a product of the cognitive dissonance arising from voluntarily living in denial of one's own pleasure.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 06:39 · Score: 0

Anonymous Coward wrote:

"It's crazy that slashdot and other people have some notion of western free speech that is universal and ingrained in human nature. Why is it so strange that other people in other places might have a different idea than you about censorship? Really, if you are not Indian, it doesn't concern you. Stay out of other people's internal affairs."/p

The right of an Indian man to swing his arms ends when he starts censoring an American company...

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 06:46 · Score: 0

Not really. While the "upper crust" of society may not see it or want it, the general populace has been breaking down the mental borders between States. It is just those with interests that stop the unification of the world's nations.

Fine, have it your way! by kheldan · 2012-01-14 08:24 · Score: 1

If that's the way they want it, then give it to them: Have Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and YouTube terminate all services to India, immediately. Enjoy being back in the Dark Ages, India.

--
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by kheldan · 2012-01-14 08:27 · Score: 1

Hear, hear! All people everywhere> want the same things: To be left the hell alone! They don't want governments telling them how to live, what they can and can't speak about, how they raise their kids, etc.

--
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 11:06 · Score: 0

'Abuse' can mean alot of different things to different people.
Is your neighbor yelling at his wife abuse? And let''s say she was born outside the US where mild wife beating was acceptable - wouldn't you be aggravating the domestic peace if you brought in the cops on the family?
The only justification for intervention by the authorities/cops/neighbors would be if it got to a point where the situation's a public menace and/or that she's made known to someone that her suffering's intolerable and wants help.
Same with international affairs. Just because some act or measure in the US by the Gov constitutes a breach of personal freedom, doesn't mean likewise in India. You can't use your value set to gauge events in other lands. Unless Indians themselves made known to the world their discontent, or if this is part of a pattern of tyranny by the Indian government, the world has other problems on it's plate.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 11:46 · Score: 0

There's a difference between "butting in" and sending troops to shoot up the very people we pretend to help.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by crutchy · 2012-01-14 14:46 · Score: 1

you're ok with your government putting your country into unrecoverable debt (15 trillion and counting) and propping up your "essential" multinational banks, and spending billions fighting wars in other countries while common Americans can't even afford healthcare or their own home.

as if the US is a model nation. the only reason why you even matter at all is because of your reserve currency status. when that fails, you're totally fucked.

Yeah by kikito · 2012-01-14 14:52 · Score: 1

"India warned these websites it can block them just like China can"

The Big Wall of (Internet) China costed millions.

India will block all internet using just one of $100 PCs that they are on the verge of releasing.

Re:Yeah by kikito · 2012-01-14 14:55 · Score: 1

Correction: India will block all internet using just one of *those* $100 PCs that they are on the verge of releasing.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by oiron · 2012-01-14 16:31 · Score: 1

There are Indians on Slashdot, you know...

Besides, the experiences of one country are applicable in others too

A little perspective... by oiron · 2012-01-14 16:47 · Score: 3, Interesting

The summary is stupid, but that's to be expected, I guess...

This is not from the government; I'm sure they'd try, but they'd just not be able to get the appropriate legislation passed and implemented. Not because Parliament wouldn't want it, but because they'd probably just end up delaying for another couple of years, bouncing it around committees and then go into election mode. In any case, the government infrastructure for this kind of censorship, especially of the internet, is just not there.

A few years ago, they tried to block Yahoo groups, on the basis that there were seditious groups on there. That lasted all of 24 hours! The public outcry, combined with the total impossibility of actually enforcing the ban, made them back down. It didn't work then, and it won't work now.

More to the point, as I said earlier, this is NOT the government. It's an activist judge in the Delhi High Court, which has NO POWERS over the rest of the country. In fact, given that this would violate a large portion of the fundamental rights section of the constitution, I'm pretty sure the Supreme Court would strike it down. With extreme prejudice!

I doubt that this case will really proceed. Right now, it's one judge making stupid off-the-cuff remarks, not giving a judgement. More to the point, a judgement is not policy, and enforcement is a whole other ball game. It's out of the court's powers, and there's no mechanism in the government for it.

Re:Their Country, Their Laws: Mind Your Own Busine by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-14 17:10 · Score: 0

thehiddenevil.com - do have a look

gang stalking = cointelpro part 2 is still around

if you find yourself thrown into a mental ward and doped up on anti-psychotics, you may just be a political dissident.

you're free to speak your mind until you have a large audience, look how quickly george carlin passed away following his talks on THE BIG SHOW and our OWNERS, look @ youtube I believe he was snuffed out, just like Bill Hicks. Heart Attacks and fast acting cancers are easily manufactured by blackops, tinfoil hats on? good, now take them off and use your mind.

Google / FB should play along by rcasha2 · 2012-01-14 18:03 · Score: 1

If any court in any country passes an actual enforceable sentence like this, Google, Facebook and other similar websites should actually help the court implement its decision by blocking all requests coming from that country/region and redirecting them to Disney or TeleTubbies or something like that.

They can reverse that decision when the country stops behaving like a baby and comes begging to be let back in, ideally with the judge's head on a platter as a peace offering.

No Uniform civil code in India by NewYork · 2012-01-15 00:43 · Score: 1

I believe Indian courts are trying to indirectly impose/promote Forward caste hegemony over BC/SC/ST/Minority communities.

--
Casteism

They just need money by hardeep1singh · 2012-01-15 07:37 · Score: 1

The Govt officials are just looking for bribes. That's why they're calling these company's representatives. Once the representatives come and give them what they need, they would just forget what they said about censoring the web. Sadly, that's how things work in my country.

Slashdot Mirror

India OKs Censoring Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo

146 comments