Our Favourite Medianama further Digs into the article:
When It Comes To The Internet, The Indian Government Needs A Reality Check - MediaNama
The Indian government needs to have a more realistic approach to the Internet.
We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again – there is a dangerous trend that has emerged over the last year and a half, of the Indian government trying to monitor, identify and block digital (online and mobile) communications, and increasingly there is paranoia over their lack of control over the digital space. So:
- They’re trying to contain the spread of potentially threatening communications – for example, stopping SMS’ beyond a certain limit and give themselves the ability to block pages and communities online through the IT Rules
- Identify people involved through the Unique ID project and mobile number verification – Do remember that Yahoo India is in court, because they refused to share information on certain email IDs
- Trying to monitor Blackberry Messenger messages (which were used during the UK riots in August), and record calls, GPRS access, location information.
Judging by the report today, it’s going from bad to worse.