Google takes the rap in
India By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - Even as the Internet continues
to grow at a fast pace in India, new controversies
abound. Search engine Google has been in the thick
of such matters worldwide. Another chapter has
been added to its India essay.
The High
Court in the state of Maharashtra has issued a
notice to Google India and the state government
for hosting an anti-India campaign on one its
social networking sites, Orkut. The move came
after a petition was filed under India's
Information
Technology Act 2000 (IT Act),
asking the court to direct Orkut to remove the
community "We Hate India", which has a picture of
the burning of the Indian flag, besides other
anti-India propaganda. The petition also appealed
to the government to appoint a controller to
regulate such communities.
The community,
set up by a Russian, Miraslov Stankovic, states
that it is against everyone who is against
Pakistan and is about having a group of people who
"hate'' India because of its oppressive and
hostile approach. The number of members of the
community itself has ranged from 90-100.
Defending its position, a Google
spokesperson has said: "Orkut is not based in
India. It's an open community. However, as its
owner, we govern the community with our terms of
service, which strictly prohibit "hate speech''
and "violence'' among other things. Orkut is a
community of "trusted'' users since only those who
are invited can join it. Besides, it has standards
and tools whereby users can report news as bogus.
We also heavily rely on users to report such acts.
In this case, Google will review and take
appropriate action [removal in this case]."
It's not the first time the website has
faced such trouble. In August, a judge in Brazil
asked Google to release information needed to
identify individuals accused of using Orkut to
spread child pornography and engage in hate speech
against various groups. Google filed a brief in
court explaining why it could not comply with the
judge's order.
Orkut is an online
community launched two years ago that connects
people through a network of friends and is one of
the most popular social networking sites in India.
An audit of Orkut users in August ranked India's
user base as the third-largest in the world,
behind Brazil and the US.
Interestingly,
the site, which has distinct interest groups, has
President A P J Abdul Kalam as the most popular
Indian leader, over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi.
Controversy erupted in India earlier as
well regarding material posted on the Internet. In
2004-5, a sexually explicit video clip of two
students of a prominent private school shot on a
mobile phone, found its way into cyber space.
The MMS clip (multimedia messaging
service, referring to the mobile technology to
transmit the video) was being auctioned on popular
website eBay-baazee.com and recording brisk sales.
A country head of the website and a student of the
prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
who had posted the clip for sale on the site were
arrested in this connection.
According to
Section 67 of the IT Act, transmission of obscene
material through electronic media can invite a
jail term for up to five years, though the arrest
of the India head of eBay was compared to jailing
a minister (Rail, for instance) for an accident
that can happen anywhere in the country.
Like the rest of the world, India has also
had its share of brouhaha against Google Earth,
the satellite imagery and geographic information
service. Though Google Earth applications in
collaboration with the National Geographic are a
technological marvel, it is not so for authorities
concerned with national security. Fears, even if
unfounded, have been expressed that the many
pictures complete with three-dimensional close-ups
and precise location codes, can be used by
terrorists to plot their moves
Cyber space
has been a forum of Indo-Pak expressions for some
time. For many in India, the Internet is one
abiding indicator of the way India and Pakistan
relations are progressing. For the initial part of
the history of virtual interactions between the
two neighbors (since e-space gained prominence in
the late 1990s) netizens have been gunning for
each other. They take the form of spamming,
abusive graffiti, hacking key sites as well as
defacing others. For example, during the height of
the Kargil conflict in 1999, hate mail from India
inundated then prime minister Nawaz Sharif's
official email.
On the other hand, when
Indo-Pak bonhomie reached a peak in January 2004,
when President General Pervez Musharraf met prime
minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to launch the peace
process, the newfound love even passed the
ultimate barometer of truth - on the
sub-continent, it is either war or cricket.
Subsequent to the meeting, the Indian
cricket team embarked on a historic month-long
tour to Pakistan, the first in 14 years. Though
emotions reach maniacal proportions during such a
contest, chat sites were surprisingly inundated
with peace messages. Topics of discussions
included prospects of a joint Indo-Pak cricket
team, a possible Noble Peace prize for Vajpayee
and Musharraf, travel prospects with restrictions
removed, business, cuisine and weather.
Indeed, even as the Internet burgeons
worldwide, means have to be found to check abusers
of the medium, without curtailing the creativity
as well as utility as a powerful communication and
information source.
The Indian government
is trying to learn the ropes. Following
international protests, the federal cabinet this
week approved amendments to the IT Act to check
information theft and online fraud. The new
provisions include greater emphasis on digital
signatures, new security practices and procedures
for e-governance and other technology
applications.
There is no doubt that the
Internet has come of age in India. The number of
Internet users reached 37 million in September, up
from 33 million in March. During the same period,
the number of "active users" has risen from 21
million in March to 25 million in September. The
National Association of Software Companies
(Nakasone), India's software lobby, estimates that
the number will cross 100 million by 2010, mostly
driven by people under the age of 35.
In
2005-6, major online shopping sites such as
Fatally, Redid, India Times and Shifty have seen
Indian consumers spend US$242 million on their
websites. This is just small slice of the retail
market in India, but it's more than double the
outcomes earned via Indian e-shoppers in 2004-05.
On an average day on eBay India, a piece
of jewelry sells every seven minutes, a mobile
handset every nine minutes; apparel sells every 12
minutes, and MP3 players every 18 minutes. People
also buy books every 24 minutes and a musical
instrument every six hours.
A slew of
Internet travel firms, such as Maestri, Antra,
Travel Guru and Clear Trip are doing brisk
business. The total online travel market is
expected to cross $550 million next year, with
online travel increasing its share to 24%,
air-ticket penetration touching 23% and online
rail tickets doing brisk business.
The
courts and the government have to be careful to
maintain the fine balance between being
heavy-handed and allowing leeway to
mischief-mongers.
Siddharth
Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.
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