India To Try Blocking “Anti-National” Websites And Blogs Again
India is putting in a screening system at landing stations to block websites and blogs that are perceived as threats to national security, reports the Economic Times. The last time they attempted something like this, individual ISPs were asked to block access and they messed things up by blocking access to all blogspot, typepad and geocities websites, instead of select ones. Indian bloggers rallied together and following condemnation from both within India and internationally, the problems at the ISP end were sorted out. This time around, India is planning to block access at international gateways. According to the Economic Times, the Department of Telecom had recently called for presentations for equipment for blocking websites. What we don’t know is what exactly the government means by ‘a threat to national security’. Again, it doesn’t take long to start a new blog, so how effective can this ever be?
Related:
- India Lifts Blanket Ban On Blogs; Only Certain Subdomains To Be Blocked
While you can not question a flag like national security, this clearly looks like another knee jerk reaction and in the long run if not addressed properly will end up with a lot of discretionary powers with people in charge of implementing this.
The least we would like to see is
a) a clear definition of what is national securty and exactly what type of site/blogs are intended to be blocked
b) we need to build consensus around these definitions not just within government but with citizens as well as in parliament
c) after the definitions are agreed to, it would be easier to implement.
Otherwise the term national security is so braod and vague that it will encompass and eventually engulf and destroy the entire internet industry.
Subho,
Just to play Devil's advocate for a bit. Why do you assume that the gov't will use this to "eventually engulf and destroy the entire internet industry"?! While its true that they have acted ham handedly in the past a few times, its always been corrected pretty promptly. I think your points are valid and I am sure that you will use your good offices to get some clarifications. However, you need to avoid a knee jerk reaction yourself. Its not like they are going to shut down the internet industry tomorrow!
I don't think the government acted promptly the last time. It took 6-8 days of frenetic activity from bloggers (self included) to get the government to act. Mails were sent out, a wiki was set up and we made a lot of noise…four days into the block, the mainstream media and the international media picked it up. Before that, some of the ISPs even refused to acknowledge that they had blocked blogs.
Agree with Subho on the 'national security' bit, though once implemented, the government can easily abuse the system. On the other hand, there are easy workarounds. You can't police the internet.
Nikhil,
I appreciate your taking the whole thing so seriously but 6-8 days in the lifetime of a nation?! I think its pretty 'prompt'…
i guess its time for a special place for INDIA lovers.i met the founders of this early stage start up "www.indyarocks.com" during my visit to san jose last week . I had an oppertunity to see some sections of the site which are in the development stage.whats really intresting about indyarocks.com is how they are unifying various aspects of social networking to give unlimited freedom of expression.
Now you know where to go when you love indya.
Dogbert,
You have a couple of points interesting points which include views on the government's promptness and it acting as a responsible body. Forgive me if I have erred on the latter.
However, I personally believe that though Govt. would definitely not shut down the 'whole of Internet' per say but they could very well deliberate on blocking individual views, press criticism and ofcourse Blog pages.
We are soon moving into a phase where the Internet would become a major medium in political funding and election campaigning. So it would not be right for the government or the legislature to have any say in the screening system.
I would like to cite a random example that came to my mind. Some political parties might object to content that speaks on a Bihari or Assamese outfit's close proximity to organizations that live outside the country and their connections with political leadership of the state.
Blocking such views could become a dangerous trend.
Therefore, instead an independent body needs to be appointed by the judiciary that would receive regular inputs from the intelligence. This body in turn would be required to monitor the Internet content full-time. Remember this media has myriad pages and its essential to have a strong independent force.