thanks Rahul ji. When u speak facts in such a logical and detailed manner, one is bound to listen to u.
I really admire ur logic and ur words sir. At the same time, I hope u give me the right to disagree with u, on a few accounts-
1. Abuse/ derogatory words used deliberately shall not be tolerated and are against law as well
2. expressing views is one thing but going beyond limits shall be strictly avoided
These r my perceptions of law and facts sir
Amitabh Thakur
--- On Sun, 1/30/11, Rahul <bruntno1@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Rahul <bruntno1@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Why shall Facebook be responsible for its contents and how
To: amitabhth@yahoo.com, "Amitabh Thakur" <amitabhthakurlko@gmail.com>, rti4ngo@yahoogroups.com, rti4empowerment@yahoogroups.com
Cc: thecybugle@yahoogroups.com, 60seconds@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, January 30, 2011, 3:01 PM
Mr. Amitabh,
Commendable as the work you do is, and I am sure
your intentions too are honorable.
But this is a situation in which I disagree with your stand
The moment we try to censure, we are bringing in extraneous
entities into the picture, in this case Governmental interference,
which we already have enough of
Unlike a disco, which can become a public nuisance,
sites like facebook are voluntary ...Its not like everytime you
go onto the net, the hate message flashes across
on the screen for you
All those who read those messages are people who chose to join that
group and are free to leave it if they don't agree with its topic or discussions.
Gandhi maybe a great son of India, but his greatness cannot be
thrust upon a people or made a holy cow that is beyond criticism.
Something that has been the bane of India in developing independant thought.
We place our heroes too high to be perceived or emulated.
Now I do not condone the kind of language used in these groups
as mentioned by you. But then what do you expect from a people
suppressed for so long. There is bound to be a lot of angst and
psychological deviations that must have occured within the indian psyche.
Venting it out on an online forum is at least better than getting sick
in real life or rioting.
Open sex in a disco is an illegality
Ventuing ire against a personlity in a group that one can
voluntarily join cannot be held as illegal.
Doing so would only result in setting a bad precedent for the
authorities to play big brother ever too often.
Besides, these people would only either go undeground
or refine/hedge their legal position before committing such acts ..
Raj Thackeraty is regularly known to consult his lawyers about the
speeches he gives to ensure that he does not transgress any
legality. He himself is a keen student of Indian law
Do you want to create more such entities??
These kind of people survive only because there is opposition
oppose them. they derive their strength fom opposition.
Deny them that and they are finished.
At least in the online world.
Do you remember the case of the 19 year old student who was
taken to court by the Shiv Sena because his group carried derogatory
remarks against the organisation and its leader Bal Thackeray??
Even Ekta Kapoor's serials are watched by many and they
too were in the eye of the storm by womens' organisation
for the portrayal of women in her serials.
Again, no one forces me to watch her serials
I didn't even know there was a problem until I read it
in the news. Because the the first few times that I did watch
the soaps, I found them nauseating enough to switch channels
and never return to them.
Unless and until people practice self control themselves, they'll
never be free in the true sense.
The Internet allows them to vent their ire and practice self restraint.No offence and Nothing personal. My apologies If I violated any social etiquette, Pranaam, P.S. I am posting this to my groups too as it is an issue I would very much like a wider audience to get involved in With best wishes,
from Rahul, 
--- On Thu, 1/27/11, Amitabh Thakur <amitabhth@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Amitabh Thakur <amitabhth@yahoo.com>
Subject: [rti4ngo] Why shall Facebook be responsible for its contents and how
To: amitabhth@yahoo.com, "Amitabh Thakur" <amitabhthakurlko@gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, January 27, 2011, 8:17 AM
| Friends,
Regarding the role of Facebook, a few questions have been raised how Facebook is responsible for whatever happened on one of its groups. These people need to understand that responsibility goes hand in hand with any kind of power, activity and purpose. Facebook and all these social networking sites are providing space for networking and interaction and also for expression of thoughts. These are powerful sites where millions of people converge to exchange thoughts and expressions. This means that anything said on these sites are able to get communicated to a very large number of people. At times they are able to deeply affect the hearts and minds of people. In fact, these social sites have been an extended part of our entity. There are many people who live a large part of their lives in this virtual world. Everyone knows how Obama used Facebook to his advantage in his initial days of Presidential runs.
This being so, all such networking sites also need to take responsibility for whatever content are being generated on them. If they have provided a platform, they need to take vigil of whatever is taking place on them. If one opens a discotheque, the person will also need to see that such acts like open sex or women harassment don't take place openly in these places. Same would be true for any such service provider.
In the case of Facebook, they have created and provided an extremely powerful site for people to converge and express themselves. Hence they do need to have mechanisms where any kind of misuse, criminal acts and other perverse acts are immediately taken care of. Sadly here these people are being completely oblivious of this responsibility. Earning money is good but it can't be completely taken away from its legal and social responsibilities. I communicated with Facebook in all possible ways available on the site to present my objection about the contents on this group. But I got no satisfactory response from them. In fact, the response I got was highly evasive and irresponsible. Words are more hurtful than deeds and hence a site like Facebook needs to keep highly effective mechanisms to immediately respond to any complaint of serious nature. They can't say that they are not responsible for anything being written on its platform, particularly when they are being clearly intimated.
This is nothing but sheer irresponsibility and is also fundamentally illegal. It is akin to a service platform being provided in physical world, with no inn-keeper or persons keeping the required order there. In all such circumstances, there would be nothing but complete chaos.
With these facts and figures, I don't seem to agree with the argument that these social networking sites are not responsible for their platform. If they are not, then who are? And if the same pretext is started being taken by all the service providers of all kinds (including films, TV serials, books, magazines, newspapers, hotels, restraints, public transport facilities etc.) then one can understand where we would find ourselves.
Thus, at least from now onwards, we need to devise means and exert pressure on these social sites that they enforce suitable grievance redressal mechanism which immediately respond to the complaints that are presented to them, and take suitable measures on all these complaints. Amitabh Thakur
IPS,
Currently at IIM Lucknow
94155-34526
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