aGameOfThrones
08-22-2014, 11:26 AM
India makes 'liking' blasphemous content illegal
India's previously criticized Facebook for not censoring material that was critical of its government, so let's agree that the country has something of a strained relationship with social media. Now, however, the south-west state of Karnataka has announced that even clicking 'like' on a post could land you in jail for 90 days before you even get to see a magistrate. Because India has no blasphemy laws, any material that could offend someone's religious beliefs is prosecuted as hate speech, and that includes uploading, forwarding, sharing, liking and retweeting something. We hate to be cynical, but we can't imagine it'll be long before the first dissenting voice gets thrown in jail to protect the feelings of the government general population
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This Act was originally meant to enable authorities to take bootleggers, drug offenders and traffickers into preventive custody. Post the amendment digital offenders can also be arrested without actually having committed any crime. So, effectively even if you are planning to forward an ‘objectionable’ meme on WhatsApp or forward a copyright protected e-book to a friend you can be arrested under this Act. What’s even more worrying is that under this Act the arrested person doesn’t have to be produced before a magistrate for 90 days, which can be extended to a maximum of one year. In case of the IT Act the arrested person needs to be presented before a magistrate in 24 hours.
The Goonda Act’s definition of a digital offender is, “any person who knowingly or deliberately violates, for commercial purposes, any copyright law in relation to any book, music, film, software, artistic or scientific work and also includes any person who illegally enters through the identity of another user and illegally uses any computer or digital network for pecuniary gain for himself or any other person or commits any of the offences specified under sections 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74 and 75 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.”
http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/22/india-censorship-blasphemy-laws-digital/
India's previously criticized Facebook for not censoring material that was critical of its government, so let's agree that the country has something of a strained relationship with social media. Now, however, the south-west state of Karnataka has announced that even clicking 'like' on a post could land you in jail for 90 days before you even get to see a magistrate. Because India has no blasphemy laws, any material that could offend someone's religious beliefs is prosecuted as hate speech, and that includes uploading, forwarding, sharing, liking and retweeting something. We hate to be cynical, but we can't imagine it'll be long before the first dissenting voice gets thrown in jail to protect the feelings of the government general population
**********
This Act was originally meant to enable authorities to take bootleggers, drug offenders and traffickers into preventive custody. Post the amendment digital offenders can also be arrested without actually having committed any crime. So, effectively even if you are planning to forward an ‘objectionable’ meme on WhatsApp or forward a copyright protected e-book to a friend you can be arrested under this Act. What’s even more worrying is that under this Act the arrested person doesn’t have to be produced before a magistrate for 90 days, which can be extended to a maximum of one year. In case of the IT Act the arrested person needs to be presented before a magistrate in 24 hours.
The Goonda Act’s definition of a digital offender is, “any person who knowingly or deliberately violates, for commercial purposes, any copyright law in relation to any book, music, film, software, artistic or scientific work and also includes any person who illegally enters through the identity of another user and illegally uses any computer or digital network for pecuniary gain for himself or any other person or commits any of the offences specified under sections 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74 and 75 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.”
http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/22/india-censorship-blasphemy-laws-digital/