Kiran Jonnalagadda ([info]jace) wrote,
@ 2006-07-17 12:10:00
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Censorship: here we go again
They’re at it again. A gag order was passed over the weekend. Most (all?) of BlogSpot is off the map for users of several ISPs in India, as is TypePad. I’m keeping track of what I can. Shivam Vij’s busy ferreting out the list of sites being blocked and source of the order.

Yawn! Time for some action, folks.

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[info]latelyontime
2006-07-18 10:33 am UTC (link)
If I were to propose that censorship is not about the content but the process, would you agree with it. let me be more lucid. The general idea of censorship is that the authority exercises censorship to curb and control, to contain and chastise the content within a particular form of expression so that it does not affect the space/collective/community that the authority stands for. However, what about censorship where the authority knows that it will be overridden but still goes and ahead and exercises it? Why would an authority which knows that the number of ways of breaking a law is far more than the number of ways of following it, still go ahead and invoke the law? it would be to make its presence felt.

If the earlier precedent of calling upon a ban on the yahoo groups, way back in the beginning of the century, is any proof, the state already knew its own incapacity at policing or censoring cyberspaces in anyway. However, sometimes censorships are implemented not because it is going to keep the intended audience away from the object but to let the intended audience as well as the participating actors know that the authority, while dormant, is still present. If the blocking of these blogs be looked upon as a way of the State's letting the people - the alleged SIMI in this case - that it is around and that, as and when required, it will bite you in the ass, then it is not a futile exercise right?

Just pondering.

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