Stop, screen, then put a post on FB
22 Nov 2012 2:50 AM IST
It is of interest that a girl has been arrested by the Mumbai police for questioning the total shutdown for Bal Thackeray’s funeral. This has been done on the basis of the misuse of the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code by the police and, possibly, the Shiv Sena. This is most unfortunate. These Acts should not be misused this way. Things would not have come to this pass had the original Information Technology Act not been tampered with by this Congress-led coalition political parties which is now in a minority. This Act, as originally passed by Parliament, was meant to further the growth and development in the field of Information Technology in India and to facilitate the transfer of information. However, the Information Technology Act 2000 has been amended through the Information Technology Amendment Act which was passed by the Parliament in 2008.
These amendments were meant to provide legal recognition for the transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, also referred to as ‘electronic commerce’. While the merits of these sections relating to electronic commerce is highly questionable, several sections have also been added to the original IT Act which have very little to do with furthering Information Tecnology but have more to do with the crackdown on the sharing of information. The amendment to the Act has even attempted to meddle with the Penal Code and the Evidence Act. Such amendments to these two important Acts cannot be done in such an underhand way for it is an attempt to undermine the Parliament.
This Act, hardly discussed in Parliament in a meaningful way, has begun to pose a big problem to the freedom of the Inidan people. Gone are the days of free sharing of information as used to happen in the early days of the Internet. Now this Telecom and Infomation Technology minister Kapil Sibal has expressed his disapproval over the arrest of this girl, which is most amusing considering he was one of the foremost advocates of this Act and very keen to introduce harsh penal provisions into the Act. In fact, some of his recent pronouncements have been completely against the freedom of speech on the Internet. It is most surprisng that he expreses such views as he and his colleagues have been behind the recent crackdown on the Internet and on the various social networking sites on the Internet. Now even sharing ordinarly information is being taken to be a crime. This Act should not be misused this way and not be used to crack down on the innocent.
These amendments were meant to provide legal recognition for the transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, also referred to as ‘electronic commerce’. While the merits of these sections relating to electronic commerce is highly questionable, several sections have also been added to the original IT Act which have very little to do with furthering Information Tecnology but have more to do with the crackdown on the sharing of information. The amendment to the Act has even attempted to meddle with the Penal Code and the Evidence Act. Such amendments to these two important Acts cannot be done in such an underhand way for it is an attempt to undermine the Parliament.
This Act, hardly discussed in Parliament in a meaningful way, has begun to pose a big problem to the freedom of the Inidan people. Gone are the days of free sharing of information as used to happen in the early days of the Internet. Now this Telecom and Infomation Technology minister Kapil Sibal has expressed his disapproval over the arrest of this girl, which is most amusing considering he was one of the foremost advocates of this Act and very keen to introduce harsh penal provisions into the Act. In fact, some of his recent pronouncements have been completely against the freedom of speech on the Internet. It is most surprisng that he expreses such views as he and his colleagues have been behind the recent crackdown on the Internet and on the various social networking sites on the Internet. Now even sharing ordinarly information is being taken to be a crime. This Act should not be misused this way and not be used to crack down on the innocent.
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