Indian Bloggers Protests Against ‘Gag Order’

[ROUDRAM]

(Bangalore) – A proposed government order to regulate blog content is being protested by India’s bloggers.  According to the blogging community, the new regulation will deny them of their right to free speech, reducing the country to a police state.

The regulation, which is a part of the Indian IT Act, was initially designed to regulate internet service providers, online auction sites, web-hosting services, and companies like PayPal and Amazon. However, the act uses the word “intermediary”, which has been broadened to include online blogs.

According to the act, intermediaries – aka bloggers – should not publish, upload, display, or modify information that can be deemed: “harmful”, “threatening”, “abusive”, “harassing”, “blasphemous”, “objectionable”, “defamatory”, “vulgar”, “obscene”, “pornographic”, “paedophilic”, “libellous”, “invasive of privacy”, “hateful”, “disparaging”, “racially” or “ethnically objectionable”, and/or “relating to money laundering or gambling.”

On the bloggers’ side is senior advocate Pavan Duggal, a Supreme Court and cyber law expert who says the act is fundamentally flawed. Nikhil Pahwa, the founder of Medianama, a digital business news site, also expressed concern; “We cannot let the government to play the judge, jury and the executioner in this. Our entire audience is Indian. If our site is blocked, we are gone” he says.

“We are in the process of finalising it,” says one government official in defence. “We welcome positive feedback and constructive criticism. We might have made a mistake in understanding the public aspect. The public could have a different view point.”

If the act passes as it stands and a blogger is found to be in breach of the legislation, they could face a civil damage suit and/or a criminal conviction. with a penalty of imprisonment ranging from three years to a life term behind bars.