[x-pubpol] India Asks Google, Facebook to Screen User Content

Tue Dec 6 22:24:37 PST 2011

Hello

India is following the example of China and a few other countries known for
undemocratic directives. Directives such as this to Social media, search
engines, ISPs are issued even by countries that are known for their
championship of civil liberties.

Governments succeed in their attempts to filter or block content, or retain
data for 'security' reasons, largely because these business firms are
powerless against the governments. Blackberry could not have said no to the
Indian Government when it wanted Blackberry to open up its encryption.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1703399/rim-close-to-agreement-with-india-over-blackberry-encryption-saga

Blackberry gave in on the threat of having its operations shut down  in
India. There are similar known and unknown "success stories" elsewhere in
the world against Google, Facebook and other firms.

Why is it difficult for these companies to stay firmly aligned and consider
unfair directives against one as a common issue and represent on these
issues together?  It would make a difference if a few powerful companies
represent on such issues as a formal or informal team.

Sivasubramanian M

On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 5:16 PM, Joly MacFie <joly at punkcast.com> wrote:

>
>
> http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/india-asks-google-facebook-others-to-screen-user-content/
>
> DECEMBER 5, 2011, 6:33 AM
> India Asks Google, Facebook to Screen User Content
>
> By HEATHER TIMMONS
>
> The Indian government has asked Internet companies and social media
> sites like Facebook to prescreen user content from India and to remove
> disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory content before it goes online,
> three executives in the information technology industry say.
>
> Top officials from the Indian units of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and
> Facebook are meeting with Kapil Sibal, India’s acting telecommunications
> minister, on Monday afternoon to discuss the issue, say two executives
> of Internet companies. The executives asked not to be identified because
> they are not authorized to speak to the media on the issue.
>
> Mr. Sibal’s office confirmed that he would meet with Internet service
> providers Monday but did not provide more information about the content
> of the meeting.
>
> About six weeks ago, Mr. Sibal called legal representatives from the top
> Internet service providers and Facebook into his New Delhi office, said
> one of the executives who was briefed on the meeting.
>
> At the meeting, Mr. Sibal showed attendees a Facebook page that maligned
> the Congress Party’s president, Sonia Gandhi.  “This is unacceptable,”
> he told attendees, the executive said, and he asked them to find a way
> to monitor what is posted on their sites.
>
> In the second meeting with the same executives in late November, Mr.
> Sibal told them that he expected them to use human beings to screen
> content, not technology, the executive said.
>
> The three executives said Mr. Sibal has told these companies that he
> expects them to set up a proactive prescreening system, with staffers
> looking for objectionable content and deleting it before it is posted.
>
> The executives said representatives from these companies will tell Mr.
> Sibal at the meeting on Monday that his demand is impossible, given the
> volume of user-generated content coming from India, and that they cannot
> be responsible for determining what is and isn’t defamatory or disparaging.
>
> “If there’s a law and there’s a court order, we can follow up on it,”
> said an executive from one of the companies attending the meeting. But
> these companies can’t be in the business of deciding what is and isn’t
> legal to post, he said.
>
> Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft did not respond immediately to calls for
> comment, and a Google spokeswoman said the company had no comment on the
> issue. Facebook said earlier this year it has more than 25 million users
> in India. Google has over 100 million Internet users in India.
>
> The demand is the Indian government’s latest attempt to monitor and
> control electronic information. In April, the ministry issued rules
> demanding Internet service providers delete information posted on Web
> sites that officials or private citizens deemed disparaging or
> harassing. Last year, the government battled with Blackberry’s
> manufacturer, Research In Motion, threatening to shut the company’s
> service off in India if it did not allow government officials greater
> access to users’ messages.
>
> The Indian government also plans to set up its own unit to monitor
> information posted on Web sites and social media sites, executives said,
> which will report to Gulshan Rai, the director general of India’s
> cyber-security monitor.
>
> A man who answered the phone in Mr. Rai’s office said he did not talk to
> the press and hung up when a reporter asked for a press contact.
>
> Some Indian cities like Mumbai have already set up special units to
> monitor Internet sites like Facebook and Orkut, the social networking
> site operated by Google, for content considered disparaging or obscene.
> India has made nearly 70 requests to Google to remove content between
> January and June of this year, one of the highest request rates of any
> country though less than the United States’s 92 and Brazil’s 224,
> according to Google’s transparency report.
>
> Vikas Bajaj contributed reporting from Mumbai.
>
>
> --
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
> WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com
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>  VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org
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