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India OKs censoring Facebook, Google, Microsoft, YouTube

43 points| Slimy | 14 years ago |zdnet.com | reply

15 comments

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[+] Ankur84|14 years ago|reply
The current Indian government is run by a bunch of amateurs (if not outright criminals). They keep concocting fake issues to keep people from the real issues. Their days are numbered.
[+] suhair|14 years ago|reply
The dumb move by the government to censor the internet earlier was catapulted by opposition from every corner and then came headless high court rule and the signal from the court to continue with the censorship. I see this as a dumb and the dumber show.
[+] queensnake|14 years ago|reply
2 things: Google does censor youtube - via responding to user complaints. And I bet Google /could/ censor the rest if it wanted to. And doesn't it already, anyway, for China?

But then if not, who would lose more, Google + Facebook or India?

[+] Slimy|14 years ago|reply
Not really. Google gave up on censoring search results in China and simply moved its operations to Hong Kong (http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/googles-china-...).

China blocks websites that don't follow its rules. India is threatening to do something similar. From this article: "Like China, we too can block such websites," said Justice Suresh Kait.

[+] diego_moita|14 years ago|reply
This trend will go on, other 3rd world countries will do the same. The problem is that "the internet" doesn't have the political clout that mainstream media has.

The good news is that most of these countries are too corrupt and disorganized to make this censorship work. It might even actually help improve anti-censorship technologies.

[+] naner|14 years ago|reply
This trend will go on, other 3rd world countries will do the same.

The term "3rd world" is a bit outdated (it's from the Cold War to describe neutral and non-aligned countries) and is derogatory. It would be more accurate to say India is a developing country.

[+] fjellfras|14 years ago|reply
I am confused why google is repeatedly being included in this list. From what I read in the newspapers the (perceived) problem was that posts on facebook are promoting enmity between religious organizations. Setting aside the validity of this claim, what does google have to do with this problem ?
[+] savrajsingh|14 years ago|reply
No surprise. All movies are reviewed by the Indian government's censor board. The 'world's largest democracy' has a long way to go!
[+] jQueryIsAwesome|14 years ago|reply
Looks like a new reason to emigrate is being created this days:

Q: "Why do you want to live in Japan?" A: "Gastronomy, more jobs and no internet censorship"

[+] robwgibbons|14 years ago|reply
India needs to correct their shit, or US companies need to begin pulling out. The dilemma is that any company worth their commercial salt is not going to give up the business opportunity that is the Indian economy.
[+] fjellfras|14 years ago|reply
I am an Indian and I used to think that one safeguard that we have against state sponsored censorship is that there are many companies outsourcing work to India, however I have recently realized that the outsourcing situation is more or less the same in China and they censor the web without qualms.