After starting to “feed” my RSS reader, I came across the
opportunity to subscribe to Tech Crunch, one of my favourite (and most
reputable) online websites that provide information regarding the world’s most
popular and fascinating technologies. While scrolling down the Tech Crunch feed
on my Feedly, there was an item of interest that caught my eye and was recently
posted as of 2 hours ago. In “Google’s Defamation Case in India Underscores
Challenges in Ensuring Internet Freedom”, Pankaj Mishra (2014) reveals the
several grey areas within the internet laws in India that could pose a
detrimental effect to everyone, including the largest internet companies like
Google and Facebook. The laws in India regarding internet use have been quite
unclear for some time now. In 2009, India began to hold internet companies
liable for all content on their site, including the offensive content. After
the Information Technology Act in 2008 was put in place, India insisted on
increased censorship within social media websites. They then asked websites to
pre-screen user content prior to accepting it and removing anything defamatory
or deemed objectionable in 2011. Since then, users have been booked continuously
for internet offenses. Now a case has come into the hands of India’s Supreme
Court and Google where the decision could potentially lead Google managers in
India facing hefty fines or even behind bars. India’s laws on internet freedom
are becoming ridiculous to the point where the tracking they insist on is “humanly
impossible”. Do you think India has the right to demand control over the world’s
leading search engine?
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