The Indian Express and other regional media are reporting that Google’s social networking service Orkut will cooperate with the Mumbai Police to share IP addresses of users who post “objectionable content” on Orkut. If reports are to be believed, the police need only email a complaint to Orkut, and Orkut will send back the personally identifying data, no questions asked.
The police are said to be targeting a number of “problematic” Orkut posts, including items that criticize various public figures in India, others that glorify Indian mobsters, and “anti-Indian words.” The latter probably has to do with a group on Orkut called “I Hate India,” which pissed off Indian officials so much, they decided to sue Google over it last October.
Welp, that proved to be a highly effective tactic. I just checked Orkut for “hate india” groups, and that one group is now many (internal Orkut search Link).
I also spotted dozens of predictably juvenile counter-groups: “V HATE THOSE WHO HATE INDIA,” “WAR AGAINST PPL WHO HATE INDIA,” “I HATE PEOPLE WHO HATE PEOPLE WHO HATE INDIAAAA,” “CLOSE THE HATE INDIA GROUPS,” and “I ONLY HATE INDIAN FOOD NOT PPL.” I stopped counting when the blinking gifs gave me a headache.
I am not able to locate any statement from Google (or Orkut) on the matter, but have requested clarification. If any Google or Orkut folks are reading this post, we welcome your comment.
In related news, there are reports that India’s Bureau of Police Research and Development has asked India’s Supreme Court of India to make “cyber terrorism” a federal crime.
Blogger Nikhil Pahwa at ContentSutra says,
We know how ineffective and poorly executed the blocking of blogs last year was – the government may have blamed ISPs for poor execution, but several of the sites on that list weren’t even relevant. How does the Police define “Objectionable Content”? Policing content online is a monumental task, and this deal between Orkut and the Mumbai Police is reminiscient of China.
Related items around the web today: Blog Herald, Slashdot, Mumbai Newsline, NDTV.
UPDATE 5:00 pm PST: Wired’s blog 27B Stroke 6 reports:
Google issued a statement:
When dealing with requests from authorities, we are very careful to balance the interests of our users while still being as cooperative in the investigation and prosecution of crimes as possible. Authorities, including those in India, are required to provide appropriate legal process in order to get user-identifying information. Google has very high standards for user privacy and a clear privacy policy.
A spokeswoman adds that Google requires local authorities to follow legal processes, which an email is not. Google is dedicated to improving lines of communication with police in Mumbai so they can have a better relationship but says that users’ rights are protected at every step of the way. But, the question of whether Google should be hosting servers in a country that limits free speech or how it decides what country’s laws are adequate to protect their users was not something she was prepared to discuss. Hopefully we’ll be having that conversation soon.
Reader comment: Zuhaib says,
I am not an Orkut user other then I have an account on it, but a large number of my family members are active members on it. And one of the reasons they like to hang out there is the large number of south Asians that visit the sites, be it Indian or Pakistani. And it is the latter group that has me thinking about maybe why the Indian police might be interested in Anti-Indian comments made on the site.
My family is Pakistan, so I would not be shocked if the majority of the members of that “We Hate India” or “I hate India” community are Pakistani, as both counties have had a hatred for each over since they where founded. Yeah some of the members might be Indians living in the country but I suspect not a large number. Even with the youth in both country there is always tensions, while it is getting as more people are getting educated and learn more about each other, on the streets of both nations there is a real hatred of each other and to see that spoil over to some internet community site is just, well, duh.
I think this is just some political pressure and media in India just making a big fuss over this so the Police decided to go after anti-Indian comments. I mean, its not like the Police in both countries have a respect for personal freedoms. If anything, it will just be things for the Indian media to tout around about the intolerance of Pakistan as the vast majority of those on that particular forum turn out to be Pakistani.
A complement to the We Hate India community would be: Link.
Anonymous says,
This is Indian blogger Amit Varma’s post on the Orkut issue. He’s been tracking Orkut’s problems with India’s censors for a while — links in the post — and also wrote an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal in October on censorship in India, which gives a good background to this current situation. That Op-Ed is here: Link.
See also: