Internet shutdowns in India

Government can switch off your internet if necessary - The Economic Times

KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: The Indian government has armed itself with powers to 'switch off' or kill the internet during times of national emergencies, becoming one of the first few countries to assume such far reaching authority. Even as the US and other western nations debate the judiciousness of giving the government's complete control to shut down cyber traffic, India has moved a step ahead and incorporated a provision under the IT Act of 2008, giving the Central government, or any of its officers specially authorised by it, to block the internet if necessary. The shutdown can happen in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, its defense, security of its states, friendly relations with foreign states or for public order. Failure to comply will result in imprisonment of up to seven years.


I Wonder whats the difference between egypt\libya and india?

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here blackberry news
RIM Takes Swipe at India's Demands - WSJ.com
NEW DELHI—A top executive of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion Ltd. said Indian security agencies are making "rather astonishing" demands for increased powers to monitor email and other data traffic, raising serious privacy issues that threaten to harm the country's reputation with foreign investors.
Robert Crow, vice president of industry and government relations for RIM, said India's Home Ministry, which oversees domestic security, wants the ability to intercept in real time any communication on any Indian network—including BlackBerry's highly secure corporate-email service—and get it in readable, plain-text format.
Such a broad requirement raises the question of whether the government believes any communications are legally off-limits, he said, including email conversations of foreign ambassadors and financial records that get transmitted over secure telecommunications networks to Indian outsourcing companies.
"You connect those dots and you're saying, 'Holy smokes,' " Mr. Crow said during an interview. "This claim is made in an environment where we don't really have any privacy- or data-protection laws—and where we have a pretty poor administrative record of keeping similar things like wiretaps secret."

important --- The shutdown can happen in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, its defense, security of its states, friendly relations with foreign states or for public order

you are a fool to believe this.Censorship in any form is reminiscent of nazi germany or 1970's emergency.they will always have the power to pull the plug.

important --- The shutdown can happen in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, its defense, security of its states, friendly relations with foreign states or for public order

I dont like this....there are so many bills in the parliament which havent been passed for 20yrs but this gets passed so fast....

this bill was passed without debate in dec 2008. 21 bills were passed in 15 mins on that day.

this is so screwed....were are all those pretest marching ppl when u need them....this is so against Freedom to Speech and live !!

Is this any amendment in the Act, or was it there before too??

sonia gandhi is a HITLER in disguise. she rules INDIA as if she is in ITALY.

:madness:

you people better watch your mouth.7 year sentence if you speak against sonia ji.

admin plz censor the above post via ****.

and oh btw the supreme court has sided with the govt
Bloggers can be nailed for views - Times Of India

this judgment is by the same CJI who is (I think) is embroiled with land scams

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NEW DELHI: A 19-year-old blogger's case could forever change the ground rules of blogging. Bloggers may no longer express their uninhibited views on everything under the sun, for the Supreme Court said they may face libel and even prosecution for the blog content.

if u think/look carefully u will realize that there is no real democracy anywhere in the world. no matter where u live freedom is an illusion that shatters when ur views are not the same as that of the ppl in power

if u think/look carefully u will realize that there is no real democracy anywhere in the world. no matter where u live freedom is an illusion that shatters when ur views are not the same as that of the ppl in power

Very True friend. These rascals in govt. are so scared that the people are awakening slowly so that in case of any EMERGENCY to protect themselves they can kill the uprising.
Its really sad as Democracy only exists on the internet, and govt. is trying to overtake it.

This news is only about 6.5 years late. It's not just the IT act that empowers this, it's in the ISP license too. Warthog should read it sometime - he'll have plenty to object to, that I'll guarantee him 😉

here this was done way back in 2006 after the blog ban

"The technology to be put in place at the eight landing stations — which bring international bandwidth into the country — will be capable of blocking websites at a sub-domain level, thus saving internet service providers (ISPs) from a sweeping shutdown. “GoI has realised that the most effective way to keep out such sites is through URL-based blocking solutions installed at international gateways,” a highly-placed source told ET. ""


Admin i request you to invest in BBS type of forum.In an even of total net blackout,the govt wont be able to block 56k lines as it would have to ban telephones.also with bbs and fidonet we can bypass them.

lol, unproportionate much? India's sovereignty wont be in danger from a few thousand lucky to have internet connections living in metros. Govt. forgets that mass uprisings like the current Jat Induced shut-down wasn't by means of the internet. They're scared of taking action against those lot but 7 year jail for this// fail!

OUTLOOK - Blogs

great article.It tells us that the govt is dying to emulate egypts hosni mubarak\libya gaddafi.