Banning the book

For Indians who cherish their freedom above everything else, the current ban on select social media websites declaring them spewers of hate content, has come as a shock. Some over enthusiasts have gone so far as to draw unflattering analogies with the Emergency years of 1975-1977.

On August 20, a notification was served to ‘All Internet Service Licensees’ by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.  A terse one-line DoT statement said, "It has been decided to immediately block access to the following URLS'', followed by a list of those facing the axe: 52 YouTube/Facebook accounts,  16 Twitter Accounts and 21 accounts classified as 'others'. Among those banned included several news websites, including The Times of India and Al Jazeera, and prominent tweeters like Pravin Togadia and some saffron-leaning journalists.

According to the central government, rumours emanating from Pakistan were spread by these networks across Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and several other cities leading to forced migration of  northeastern people from these places.

With the exodus issue hotting up, the government had earlier restricted SMSs to five a day. The avalanche of criticism by outraged netizens and social media activists have proved Twitter and Facebook as the latest tools of rebellion. According to Bangalore-based The Centre for Internet and Society, "There are a total of 309 specific items, URLs, Twitter accounts, img tags, blog posts, blogs and a handful of websites, that have been blocked."

Says analyst Pranesh Prakash, "Almost no government official used social media platforms to reach out to people to debunk false information and reassure them. Even a Canadian interning with us got a reassuring SMS from the Canadian government."

An August 24 Prime Ministers' Office (PMO) statement said that they had requested Twitter to take appropriate action against six persons impersonating the PMO. When there was no response, the government's Cyber Security Cell was requested to initiate action. Twitter has subsequently conveyed that action has been taken. The ban has, however, been partially implemented since it is only prohibited on the HTTP protocol and not on others such as HTTPS, which is a secure protocol.

The mounting criticism and public disaffection on the back of a series of scams in the last few years has made the UPA-2 ultra-sensitive. One official told TSI that the "government has for long been contemplating a ban on the websites. Under immense pressure to tackle exodus of North East residents across India, the government reached out to National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) to scan social media. The websites suggested by the agency were immediately put on the prohibited list.''

Officials say the government had in December 2011 warned of consequences if social media and its users did not adopt self-regulation.

Said Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, "This is a matter of great concern to us. We have to take care of peoples' sensitivities. We are seeking their cooperation, and if somebody is not willing to co-operate on incendiary material like this, it is the duty of government to think of steps that need to be taken. We do not want to interfere in freedom of the press, but this kind of material should not be allowed.''

 Ironically, it was the social media which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh turned to, when in a bind. Caught in the raging storm over the coal block allocation report of the CAG and not permitted to make a statement in Parliament, he found a unique way to reach out to people. In a series of 32 tweets, the PMO released the official statement of the Prime Minister which was within minutes quoted by various news outlets.

Amidst fears of such censorship in India through legislation, research firm Gartner claimed that in the years ahead, the growth of social media in the country could decrease as compared to other nations. Are these fears genuine or is it reading too much into the situation?

With over 25 million users, India remains one of the major markets for Facebook. Social media has emerged as the new age mainstream media with its sheer power. Not only has it questioned bad governance and virtually spearheaded the anti-corruption drive, it has also slammed mainstream media on various occasions. In such times, it would be important for the government to realise that it has not been able to implement cyber laws and construct a national cyber intelligence cell to counter any virtual eventuality. That may have been a far better idea than imposing blanket bans.