International Law

Restriction on bloggers features in Rajya Sabha

By Apar Gupta

Rajeev Chandrashekhar a MP with prior experience in the telephony and mobile industry made a statement yesterday in the Rajya Sabha during the zero hour on the restrictions being placed on bloggers. Mr. Chandrashekhar highlighted concern over the imposition of these unnecessary restrictions on bloggers through proxy  of private internet intermediaries. He stated the proposed changes in the Information Technology Act would require regulatory compliance causing internet intermediaries to police and censor content. What was interesting the the measures were referred to as a, “gradual policy” of targeting, the “vibrant blogging community and bloggers”. The MP also made mention of the changing demographics of  India where in the coming decade, the majority of the population would be under the age of 35 and blogs reflected an important and significant form of new media, relied upon by the younger populace to make decisions and to form opinions. A video of his speech is embedded below

A copy of these proceedings is available at the rajya sabha website which also reveals that three other MP’s namely Kumar Deepak Das from Assam (deepak.das@sansad.nic.in), P. Rajeev from Kerala (prajeevcpm@gmail.com) and Mahendra Mohan from Uttar Pradesh (m.mohan@sansad.nic.in) supported the statement. Later a statement on Mr. Chandrashekhar’s official website also called upon the Government to conduct a, “transparent public consultation / public opinion thereon and involve the blogging community before finalizing and implementing these rules for publication and implementing them.”

Full post as published by India Law & Tech on March 23, 2011 (boomark / email).