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Big brother’s watching you. Big brother wants to control what you see.

And no, we are not talking about the American government. This time, we speak up against the Indian government’s political censorship on the Internet.

“The OpenNet Initiative classified India as engaged in “selective” Internet filtering in the political, conflict/security, social, and Internet tools areas in 2011.”

So, what exactly makes a Government body competent to decide what information we should see and what we shouldn’t? Well, there is no clear structure. At present, any form of censorship could pass in the name of “National Security”. But most of these blocks are politically charged.

The website LiveLeak has broken many serious stories in the past during the Arab Spring and to highlight issues like police brutality in the United states.

Live Leak also has a lot of useless content that may not interest you. But that doesn’t mean the Government can choose to ban this entire site?

There needs to be systematic process in how we censor information. We can’t just have a random approach.

Remember when Ravi Shankar Prasad’s (current IT Minister) team tried to ban porn sites? Do they really believe that all the porn on the Internet is present only on 1200 odd websites? NEWSFLASH: There are millions of porn websites and it technologically impossible to block even 10% of it.

Remember when Kapil Sibal’s (ex-IT minister) team wanted to block Google and Facebook when they found out that there was offensive material against Indian National Congress? – (Impossible to prescreen Content: says Facebook and Google -) DNA India

We need to fight harder (more than ever) to protect our free Internet.

“The national security policy of the world’s biggest democracy is undermining freedom of expression and the protection of Internet users’ personal data.” – Reporters without borders

“In 2009, the Supreme Court ruled that bloggers and moderators can face libel suits and even criminal prosecution for comments posted on their websites.” – Freedom House report

“I am mystified by our government’s approach both to the internet and to the millions of Indians using it. It does not adhere to the values of our republic and democracy. This matter needs to be addressed urgently, for which I propose to file a PIL in the Supreme Court. Don’t kill the freedom of speech, change the IT Rules” – Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Member of Parliament

“In July 2006, the Indian government ordered the blocking of 17 websites, including some hosted on the Geocities, Blogspot and Typepad domains. Initial implementation difficulties led to these domains being blocked entirely.” – Outlook India

“n an order dated 13 June 2013, the Department of Telecom (DoT) directed Indian Internet service providers (ISPs) to block 39 websites. The order didn’t specify a reason or law under which the websites were blocked.” – The Times of India

Read about how your rights are being violated here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_India

Digital India ‪#‎internetcensorchip‬ ‪#‎freeinternet‬ ‪#‎muftinternet‬