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Do We Need a "Content Controller" for Web in India?
The PIL at Aurangabad High Court on Orkut has inter-alia requested for the appointment of a "Controller" as a part of the remedy sought. This naturally raises the issue of what should be the structure of such a "Controller"? , "Will it amount to Censorship?" and "Is it practical"?. At the same time, it also raises the issue of "Should such regulation be done only by the Government?" or "Can there be Self Regulation"? or "Can there be NGOs who can act as catalysts to meet the requirement without being considered as a Censor Board"?. Lastly, if India objects to "We Hate India Campaign", how do we deal with "We hate Pakistan campaign" ?.
Let us try to briefly understand these issues.
There is no doubt that if the Government appoints any agency with the sole purpose of regulating content on the web, it will turn out to be a fiasco. India is a peculiar country where some of our celebrities take pride in anti national activities under the garb of "Human Rights Activists". Many politicians support "We Hate India" campaigns for the sake of political gains. Some intellectuals do it for may be a misplaced sense of "Freedom of Speech". If therefore the Government introduces a regulatory system for content on web, it is bound to be opposed and doomed to fail. More importantly, such a power is likely to be abused for political gains by the ruling political powers. It is expected that these aspects will be taken into consideration before a decision is arrived at by the Court in this regard.
On the other hand, there is no doubt that there is a need for a "Watch Dog" on web content which is anti-India so that any genuine complaint of misuse of the web could be brought to public light and properly addressed. This can very well be a private body but will have to be supported by a group of volunteers who report such incidents.
Naavi.org invites public to support such a venture. A proposal will be considered by "Digital Society Foundation", a Charitable Trust dedicated to Digital Society Welfare to work towards development of a system to address the needs of an NGO to act in this regard.
It is worthwhile to record here that Naavi.org had initiated a suggestion in December 2000 on "How to Counter Rogue Sites" which is still relevant.
The issue of "Regulating Content" for the purpose of prevention of abuse of the freedom available on Internet is an issue which is critical to the maintenance of Trust in the web. We therefore need to look beyond the Orkut case to set up a system to meet the requirements of maintaining Trust in web space. We invite suggestions in this regard.
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Naavi
October 11, 2006
Related Articles:
Re-enactment of Yahoo-Memorabilia case in India?..Naavi.org
"How to Counter Rogue Sites"...Naavi.org
Orkut accused of carrying anti-india messages, could be trouble : Deccan Herald
French Court Ruling in November 2000...PC World
Yahoo Loses Appeal in US in January 2001
Supreme Court Passes on Yahoo Nazi Memorabilia Case.. May 30, 2006...PC World
