Internet Censorship In India

Cops use statute to go after the youth

In India, if a law can be misused, it will be. Invariably, it is the state that makes a victim of ordinary innocent citizens who dont have the ability to push back.

The latest instance of abuse is the gross overreach in reading provisions of Indias 2008 Information Technology Act by the police, who obviously are acting at the behest of their political masters or other vested interests.

The law applies to disseminating content posted via communication devices such as mobile phones or computers on the Internet. Indias youth form the majority of the countrys population as predominant users of such media.

However, deliberate misuse of stipulations such as a section that seeks to check offensive and menacing digital posts has infringed on basic rights of speech and expression.

In the latest instance, two young women, Shaheen Dhada and Renu Shrinivas, in their early 20s, were arrested for voicing innocuous opinions on Facebook on the shutdown of Mumbai due to the death of the controversial and polarizing local leader Bal Thackeray.

Prior to this a tweet against finance minister P Chidambarams son led to the arrest of another youth, Ravi Srinivasan, in Pondicherry. In September, it was the Mumbai police again that arrested cartoonist Aseem Trivedi for poking fun of politicians and parliament. A professor in Kolkata was arrested for emailing cartoons of Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal.

Offenses under Section 66A of the IT Act have been made cognizable, which means that the police can arrest an individual after registering a complaint, as opposed to the powers resting with a judicial magistrate.

Leaving matters to the subjective assessment of cops in India is asking for trouble given their high handedness. The youth of course are always vulnerable. For example, a law against indecency in public that dates back to the British colonial times is regularly misused to victimize young couples.

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Internet Censorship In India