The Web Columnist

Few months back I remember reading an article about how China had tussles with Google regarding issues related to filtering out search results and censoring them accordingly as the Chinese Government wanted. I for one knew that nothing of this sort would ever happen in a country like India, where people are allowed to do pretty much anything they want as long as its legal. But Mr.Kapil Sibal is here to change everything. 

According to The New York Times, on December 5th Kapil Sibal had summoned Facebook officials and showed them a picture which was posted on the site that allegedly maligned Congress president Sonia Gandhi, saying this was unacceptable, as the picture depicted the Congress head with the Prime Minister in an inappropriate(I'd say funny) position. What's more surprising is the secrecy of this whole incident. Apparently the meeting between Facebook officials and Kapil Sibal took place in his office. Where they were asked to remove such offensive content from the website. If Sibal is concerned about defamation he should've taken up the matter with the court and sought a legal solution rather than dealing it in a hush-hush way. 

What irks me is the clandestine approach to this issue, trying to secretly ban, censor and filter online content. Its nothing but preventing the people of the country from knowing how the Government is eyeing on the web.

The Government and Kapil Sibal should understand is what people were saying orally yesterday is now  being said online. The only possible difference is the platform and possibly a wider audience who most probably have the same views. The Government won't go ban the nearest tea shop were people gather around every evening to discuss politics and hurl abuses, so why do it online? Everything on the Internet is not to be taken seriously. 

What also amazes me is the fact that all these years celebrities from our country have had numerous illicit materials such as photos and videos being published about them all over the interweb and the Government never felt the need to tag them under 'Defamation' . Who decides what's defamation? Or does it become defamation when its targeted at the Government? People online deal with such things by ignoring or not responding to them, and Mr.Kapil Sibal you should too. 

Hours after the news about Kapil Sibal trying to censor online content hit mainstream media, people were enraged about it and tags like #IdiotKapilSibal were trending on Twitter. OMG, they're defaming you now Mr.Sibal ! Why don't you ban Twitter from India ? Lets go the middle east way, ban everything and anything that doesn't conform with the wants of the Government. Such an autocratic rule was the only thing needed at this point of time when India is trying to get its foothold as a developing modern nation.