Orkut User Loses in Indian Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of India has denied legal protection to a 19 year old computer science student facing a lawsuit for comments left on a group page he created on the Google owned social network Orkut, according to The Times of India. Local press has identified the young man by the name Ajith D (a common name) and report that his alleged offense was creating a group page where other visitors left "libelous" comments critical of militant right-wing political party Shiv Sena.
Indians around the internet are condemning the ruling as a blow against freedom of speech and democracy. It certainly appears to be a dangerous misunderstanding of the nature of the internet on the part of the court and a bad precedent in the most populous democracy in the world.
The Times of India quotes the court as having offered the following statement to the young man. "You are a computer student and you know how many people access internet portals. Hence, if someone files a criminal action on the basis of the content, then you will have to face the case. You have to go before the court and explain your conduct."
We're not sure what the number of potential readers has to do with anything and we find it pretty frightening that a court that would say "you're a computer student so you know how many people use the internet" had any say at all in such matters.
According to reports the comments in question were left by anonymous users and the group's owner claimed they were legitimate exercises of free speech. The youth arm of the political party facing criticism apparently filed suit under a law pertaining to "hurting public sentiment."
There are more than 1,000 groups on Orkut that show up in a search for "Shiv Sena," some for and some very much against the party. We're writing based on relatively light local reporting, so it's possible that the group started by Ajith D was particularly heinous. On principle, though, we presume that the young man should not face legal charges for anonymous comments left by others - no matter what those comments were.
Late last year Facebook shut down a group on that site that appeared to be celebrating acts of genocide against Bosnian Muslims. People lost their Facebook accounts and the group was closed due to violation of the site's Terms of Service against advocating violence - but filing legal charges against the group's admin would have been an entirely different matter.
India's Supreme Court ruling that the Orkut group owner could be sued for anonymous comments sounds like a terrible ruling to us and the kind of thing that web users all around the world should be concerned about. India is the world's second most populous country and its largest democracy. It's a large and complicated country, though. While the recent rise of the Indian middle class and tech sectors have received substantial attention, the country still has one of the highest child malnutrition rates in the world - twice that of Sub Saharan Africa according to the World Bank.
Democracies are complicated; the United States has one of the highest rates of imprisonment of any industrialized countries in the world, holds a shockingly disproportionate number of its young black men in prison and was founded on an experiment in ethnic cleansing. Who has the moral high ground?
While big picture questions are important, this particular case is as well. Will Google intervene in defense of Ajith D's use of its website? Will the US government, now more than ever advocating the use of free-flowing information technology to advance human well being, have anything to say about this potentially terrible precedent being set? We suspect neither will occur.
It's a good idea for us as individual web users to remember that even as new internet technology sets so much information and so many voices free, even in a celebrated democracy - online freedom may be one repressive legal ruling away from being put at serious risk. No matter where you might live - do you trust that your local judiciary would understand the issues in a case like this? We don't.
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I think the implications of the Supreme Court action are overstated. I argue in my blog post at http://dhananjay.nene.in/2009/02/free-to-blog-but-accountable-you-are-the-supreme-court-of-india-weighs-in-on-blogging-and-online-expression/ that this does not seem to be a freedom of expression issue.
There are two things to be noted. India has laws which prevent expression of violent acts like death threats. This case is not a civil case - it is a criminal case "apparently" because of such threats.
Secondly the Supreme court has ruled that the defendant has to produce himself in court to face the charges. It has not declared him guilty.
Thanks Dhananjay, your post is the most articulate discussion of the case I've seen yet.
I believe this case cannot be talked in a general sense. Holding moderators so closely responsible for the anonymous comments might be excessive.
Imagine a college student who creates a group in Orkut. And his group gets very popular, with thousands of users. Some conversation is going on all the time there. Is that student supposed to monitor each and every conversation thread?When will he get any time to study?(In this case it was a student). If yes, then creating forums or tools for online expressions should only be done by people who are full time devoted to it. And in that case forums and groups can be created only when there is a commercial return(as the moderator needs to work full time).No more people will do it for personal non commercial interests. I don't like the way it is going.
PS:I am not very active in Orkut, and I have created a few communities. I am going there right now and deleting them all. Really. (I am from India).
Marshall, this is nothing new in India. It has been happening to liberal activists from time immemorial and they were brushed aside by media as actions on commies (a term used to brush aside liberal values like in US). It has also happened to many other political activists. So far media didn't bother because it was happening to liberals. Now the misuse has come to strike a young boy from upper middle class who has used technology and media is making it big. The legal system in India needs an overhaul. Anyone can easily harass anyone else if they can manage to file a criminal case even on frivolous issues. Thatz the sad part.
From the Orders of Supreme Court, I think we gonna loose a group fron orkut and its nice to do this..
this is nothing new in India. It has been happening to liberal activists from time immemorial and they were brushed aside by media as actions on commies.
The moment this news was made public, a number of my twitter friends from India expressed outrage over the ruling. Free speech, especially as that expressed on the internet has always courted controversy and this recent incident is doing nothing for the confidence of bloggers in their home judicial system.
Judicial systems in any nation should consider the fact that blogging gained momentum as an open medium of expression and interaction. - Edward
With the penetration of internet and the understanding and tolerance for the openness of Internet being so restricted and scattered in India, this had to happen one day.
Internet and more so SN and UGC {Not the University Grants Commission :-)} are still perceived as destructive and waste of time rather than being constructive.
Great post as usual.
I remeber the burkha dutt episode, she and her channel went behind a blogger with defamatory charges.
Now we have this, wherein the Shivsena youth wing leader is pressing "hurting public sentiments"charges ( its the party's obsessive sentiment.. and practically nothing to do with public )..
In both cases, the targets where individuals against "group / organisation". Given the current judicial system, apologising / deleting the group seems to be the easy way out.
I hold one of the biggest Young India community over orkut : http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=50031368 ...I'm not going to del it & gonna maintain it for more youths to raise their voice. I feel as a hardcore netizen it is my responsibility to support & fight for the Internet Democracy.