Indian Gov't Bans Bulk SMS, Investigating Social Media 101
saiful76 writes "Following mass exodus of people belonging to north-east states India from southern states of India, specially Bangalore, allegedly due to the threatening messages, the government has asked relevant agencies to scan all social media platforms to check for inflammatory and offensive content, following which, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DIT) has issued an advisory to all intermediaries in terms of provisions of IT Act and Rules to take action for disabling all such content on priority. Cellphone operators have been told to block all bulk SMSs and videos — so nobody can send a message to more than five people at a time."
And... (Score:2)
PAKISTAN (Score:2)
Apparently, a lot of SMS messages have been traced back to Pakistan as their origin point:
http://www.rediff.com/news/report/pakistans-perfect-ploy-led-to-ne-exodus/20120818.htm [rediff.com]
If true, then that's quite noteworthy.
Gee, I wonder why Pakistanis would do something like that?
India - China (Score:3)
Everybody knows China isn't free
Everybody knows that the communist government of China does not allow its people too much freedom
And the way I look at it, India is doing its best to copy China - they copied everything, including the bad stuffs
Tracing sms to Pakistan is but a lousy excuse to restrict freedom for the over 1 billion people inside India
Re: (Score:2)
Either SMS messages came from Pakistan or they didn't - that's not a subjective issue.
I'd say India's current ruling party is doing its best to copy Hosni Mubarak's govt in Egypt, protecting a kleptocracy built on corruption, while labeling political opponents as "fundamentalists" to keep them at bay.
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I suppose you prefer having a few thousand dead rather than having to curtail your ability to send text messages to more than 5 people at once? Is your convenience worth someone else's life?
Keep thinking that way, and by the time of your children they wouldn't be permitted to make a conference call to more than 5 people simultaneously
Good luck, India, for you have this "ganesh.rao" guy who believe that freedom must be stifled in order to achieve a totally ordered (as specified by TFTB) Indian society
BTW, Mr. Rao, do you believe in "honor killing"?
Would you kill your own daughters when they decide that it's their freedom to become someone other than what you expect of them?
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Re:India - Egypt (Score:2)
You may call India "the world's largest democracy" - but I call it the world's largest hypocrisy, the world's largest kleptocracy.
Elections in India have been reduced to a farce - but that doesn't seem to bother you, as long as you can make a technical claim that there are elections.
Take a look at the latest electoral antics from the ruling Congress Party:
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/guj-polls-cong-meticulously-plotting-to-dethrone-modi/183402/on [business-standard.com]
http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=7 [outlookindia.com]
Re: (Score:2)
>Did you even read the links you posted? Congress is the opposition party. Ruling party happens to be the BJP in Gujrat. There is no mention of "registration forms" or free housing within those links.
No, the Congress Party is the ruling party at the Centre, and it's been the ruling party there for 53 out of the last 65 years. It's from the Centre that they're able to rig the entire system in their favour. It's mainly only when they've suffered assassinations that other parties have gotten a chance to gai
vote-rigging (Score:2)
>There is no mention of "registration forms" or free housing within those links.
Here you go, Kaangressi:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cong-builds-house-of-dreams-on-Narendra-Modis-turf/articleshow/15579607.cms [indiatimes.com]
They are trying to hoodwink the poorest people in society, in a no-holds barred bid to eliminate their opponent. This type of blatant offering of sops is basically tantamount to vote-rigging.
You can act like an apologist for them all you want, but your comments reveal more about yourself
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Well, if you have incapable and right-wing opposition parties like the BJP/NDA, you'll never see anyone but the Congress in power. You think the minorities in this country are ever going to vote for these right wingers? When was the last time one of these parties had a stance in J&K? Remember that India has a significant minority population and a very large tolerant majority population.
In India everyone is a minority. The word "Hindu" was coined by the Arabs, remember? Before that, there was no umbrella word, much less an umbrella identity. Muslims are simply the largest ethnic group in a sea of smaller ethnic groups. Are you even from India - or are you just some "oreo" raised abroad, who's only heard about India from foreign news media? Which part of Andhra did you grow up?
Blame the Congress to have held power that they don't deserve only when you have a deserving opposition party. That said, the next election might be the best chance any other party can get because of the Centre's mighty publicized failings in the past 8-9 years; but I still doubt it since the BJP has voiced its neocon nature already.
Heh, "neocon" - you're obviously raised abroad in the US and steeped in their politics, while having no real first-
You're Not Even Indian, Are You? (Score:2)
[bunch of blather deleted]
Heh, you're not even Indian, are you? Oh, you've got an Indian name, but you didn't even grow up there. You don't even have the foggiest idea of what you're talking about. That's why you completely digressed into some rant, trying to avoid looking like the dope you've exposed yourself to be. Anyone of us who's actually grown up in India and lived there understand the reality of govt corruption. It's a basic fact of life.
You're just some kind of "abcd" (American Born Confused Desi)
he doesn't even know - sad (Score:2)
You've got no real understanding of what goes on in India, do you? That's why you're just reflexively replying back, like some brainwashed simp. You need to get a life, and get a country. Because whatever you think you know is just fiction. Heh, "non-productive" - well, at least everyone's productively found out that you're not actually from the country you're claiming to know so much about, and whose kleptocracy you're defending.
Re:India - Egypt (Score:2)
Ganesh Rao,
How free are those who desecrated one of the country's oldest war memorials?
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2012/aug/140812-Mumbais-most-wanted.htm [mid-day.com]
How free are some to burn 58 people to death on a train, and then call their own community the victims?
How free is this small 11-year old girl who was arrested the other day in the country nextdoor, where particular laws are upheld by the majority faith there?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/19/pakistan-christian-tensions-quran-burning-allegations [guardian.co.uk]
N
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not a troll - you are. Nobody should ever allow themselves to be stuck in a sado-masochistic relationship, where they are the lone side showing tolerance, while the other side continues to show selfish belligerence. That's called appeasement.
So spare me your pretentiously fake aura of "calm, cool, maturity", when you're simply promoting lethargy and appeasement. Neville Chamberlain helped to promote fascism by appeasing it in the manner you're suggesting. The Religion of Peace could do with some introsp
Re:And... (Score:5, Insightful)
What do we expect from their control freak government?
Well people from SOME cultures are VERY easily offended and take this perceived offence VERY seriously.
So its not just that this government is a 'control freak' its that the government is well aware at how hair-triggered large portions of their population can be at what to us in the West might seem incredibly minor things. Very simple words and phrases can cause widespread rioting with commensurate property damage, loss of life and livelihood. So in this sense the Indian government HAVE to be 'control freakish'.
IMO its just dumb of these cultures to be so fucking incredibly oversensitive and it really does them no good at all it just makes them look like complete dumbasses to the rest of the world. "What, so you killed someone because he called you a son of a bitch? Riiight thats just totally justified." while within that persons social context it WOULD be 'totally justified'. Doesn't make it right, it makes that persons social context FUCKED RIGHT UP.
Re: (Score:1)
Sadly we do the same freeken thing over other stuff in the US/Europe. Stuff I can't mention hear because I'd be drummed out of existence and might even have someone call the cops on my ass. And the cops likely WOULD go after it. Just speech. But none the less. Dangerous speech!
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Sadly we do the same freeken thing over other stuff in the US/Europe. Stuff I can't mention hear because I'd be drummed out of existence and might even have someone call the cops on my ass. And the cops likely WOULD go after it. Just speech. But none the less. Dangerous speech!
But most of the time when people get riotous in the US/Europe its for things like... cops beating the shit out of someone or shooting someone out of hand. In certain other parts of the world they'd get riotous if the cops insulted someone.
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And where exactly are you from?
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As for plain ol offence...well, no life is lost just by being offended right?
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Chee thanks for stereotyping. I'm from India where calling a handicap just that doesn't bother him. Or calling a black person just that is no offense to anyone. So excuse me if I take your post with a pinch of salt. In the west we keep coming with terms just so someone is not offended, handicap becomes physically challenged and you can't even call your Christmas holidays "Christmas holidays".
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Chee thanks for stereotyping. I'm from India where calling a handicap just that doesn't bother him. Or calling a black person just that is no offense to anyone. So excuse me if I take your post with a pinch of salt. In the west we keep coming with terms just so someone is not offended, handicap becomes physically challenged and you can't even call your Christmas holidays "Christmas holidays".
Yeah but people don't riot over these things.
Re: (Score:1)
Of course you can, if you're talking about your Christmas holidays. If you're talking about Hanukkah holidays or Kwanza holidays and you call them your "Christmas holidays" then at best you're being incorrect and at worst you're being a fool.
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Re:And... (Score:5, Funny)
In your haste to submit your bigoted and hateful post, you forgot to check the demographics. India is overwhelmingly Hindu.
Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:And... (Score:5, Insightful)
And you can't do the math.
No, I think I can handle basic arithmetic. What you want me to think, of course, is "Holy Shit! Millons of very scary Muslims! In INDIA!!!"
Let's not play pretend that the purpose of that first paragraph was something other than pure rhetoric. You can keep your klansman-style propaganda, we don't need it here.
As for the supposed threat of Islamic terrorism, I'm not even a little bit concerned. See, here in the US the big threat isn't Muslims -- it's hateful bigots. You'll find that here, virtually every act of terrorism in the last decade was committed by a Christian. Typically white and, more often than not, by someone who shares your hateful beliefs about Muslims.
Enjoy living in fear in your imaginary hate-filled world. I recommend that you avoid reality -- you'll find that the monsters there look a bit too much like you for comfort...
Re:And... (Score:4, Insightful)
And you can't do the math.
No, I think I can handle basic arithmetic. What you want me to think, of course, is "Holy Shit! Millons of very scary Muslims! In INDIA!!!"
Let's not play pretend that the purpose of that first paragraph was something other than pure rhetoric. You can keep your klansman-style propaganda, we don't need it here.
As for the supposed threat of Islamic terrorism, I'm not even a little bit concerned. See, here in the US the big threat isn't Muslims -- it's hateful bigots. You'll find that here, virtually every act of terrorism in the last decade was committed by a Christian. Typically white and, more often than not, by someone who shares your hateful beliefs about Muslims.
Enjoy living in fear in your imaginary hate-filled world. I recommend that you avoid reality -- you'll find that the monsters there look a bit too much like you for comfort...
FUCK!!
Its not about Hindus or Muslims or Christians!
Its about people who just can't contain their rage when they get insulted!
THATS what is DUMB!
THAT is what is FUCKED UP!
Re: (Score:2)
FUCK!!
Its not about Hindus or Muslims or Christians!
Its about people who just can't contain their rage when they get insulted!
THATS what is DUMB!
THAT is what is FUCKED UP!
Please tell me that was intentional.
Re: (Score:2)
yes
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In your haste to submit your bigoted and hateful post, you forgot to check the demographics. India is overwhelmingly Hindu.
I know Hinduism well and I think that Advaita vedanta is the most accurate philosophy that exists.
However, many Hindus are as rabid when it comes to perceived 'offence' as many Muslims.
Re: (Score:2)
the equivalency game (Score:1)
Take a look at who's behaving rabidly - the religion of peace once again:
http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/have-you-seen-the-rioters-who-vandalized-the-amar-jawan-memorial-254715 [ndtv.com]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/hindus-from-pakistan-flee-to-india-citing-religious-persecution/2012/08/15/adf09888-e6e4-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_story.html [washingtonpost.com]
So let's not always reflexively force ourselves into a game of moral equivalency. All religions are not identical, and some religions have features which pose mor
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
You would think that Indian muslims would side with their own country
No, I wouldn't, because I know that for a typical Muslim, the only loyalty lies with the Ummah.
Re:And... (Score:4, Informative)
A sensible approach to this would be to keep drawing Muhammad and whatever else until these mud people completely exterminate themselves.
Unfortunately, our culture has its own major flaw: "tolerance."
Of course Islam describes itself as 'a religion of peace and tolerance' but I'm not sure exactly what Arabic words get translated as 'peace' and as 'tolerance', there seems to be some... misunderstanding involved.
The Arabic word for "peace" is "salam". And yes, it's the same root as "islam".
There are probably many more peaceful/tolerant muslims in the world than there are Christians, but it's the "Fred Phelp's" groups that get all the attention, not the Lutherans down the block.
Re: (Score:3)
The Arabic word for "peace" is "salam". And yes, it's the same root as "islam".
Roots can have a lot of different meanings, I've yet to meet a Muslim who would translate "Islam" as "peace", though, same root or not. The conventional translation is "submission" (to God). I've met one quite devout Muslim who made a point of always translating it when he talked about it (which was, ahem, a lot), and that was the translation he used as well.
Re: (Score:2)
Yup, GP fails badly at understanding basic Semitic roots.
Take the root K-T-B (book, written, to write, etc):
KITAB - book
AKTIB - to write
but
MAKTAB - office (literally "place of writing")
MAKTABAH - primary school (place of writing, feminine form)
So saying that islam and salaam derive from S-L-M is pretty damn vague and useless information without context.
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The Arabic word for "peace" is "salam". And yes, it's the same root as "islam".
Roots can have a lot of different meanings, I've yet to meet a Muslim who would translate "Islam" as "peace", though, same root or not. The conventional translation is "submission" (to God). I've met one quite devout Muslim who made a point of always translating it when he talked about it (which was, ahem, a lot), and that was the translation he used as well.
Thats what I got as well; 'peace' meaning 'not struggling against the will of God', which is a bit different from the English meaning of the word.
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The Arabic word for "peace" is "salam". And yes, it's the same root as "islam".
Roots can have a lot of different meanings, I've yet to meet a Muslim who would translate "Islam" as "peace", though, same root or not. The conventional translation is "submission" (to God). I've met one quite devout Muslim who made a point of always translating it when he talked about it (which was, ahem, a lot), and that was the translation he used as well.
Thats what I got as well; 'peace' meaning 'not struggling against the will of God', which is a bit different from the English meaning of the word.
You just haven't been dragged to the same churches that I was, that's all. No Jesus, No peace, etc.
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There are probably many more peaceful/tolerant muslims in the world than there are Christians, but it's the "Fred Phelp's" groups that get all the attention, not the Lutherans down the block.
Not likely, as there are more Christians than Muslims [adherents.com], and at least a large portion of the Muslims are not [economist.com] particularly [bbc.co.uk] tolerant. Of course, many of the muslims in the west are those who can't stand this religious oppression.
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A sensible approach to this would be to keep drawing Muhammad and whatever else until these mud people completely exterminate themselves.
Unfortunately, our culture has its own major flaw: "tolerance."
So... we should make our culture more like theirs?
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In this case, less telespammers.
Alleged cause? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
I don't see how so
Re: (Score:1)
> Bangalore was hit hardest by rumours that the ethnic violence in
> Assam, in which nearly 80 people have been killed, would
> ricochet across Karnataka,
Ya, if this happened just down the road, and I got threatening texts along with thousands of my neighbors, I'd be out of there on one of the extra chartered trains, too.
Regarding "allegedly", it's journalistic cover-my-ass, but journalists seem to have forgotten this and use it out of all context, in some kind of regurgitative reflex.
Re:Alleged cause? (Score:5, Informative)
You already seem to have a grasp of the situation here in India.
People of northeast of India have a mongoloid features, which marks them as different from rest of Indians that have aryan features.
There is some ethenic violence going on in Assam, a state in notheast of India, between Bodo (ethenic Assames people with mongoloid features) and Muslims. So other Norhteastern people living in rest of India are therened by Muslims.
Most of these people are students and migran labours. Their parents got worried about their safety and called them back. Mass hysteria got generated when evey norhteastern person just started exodus from rest of India back to their hometown.
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It's not neighbouring states - Assam is about 2000km away from Karnataka.
Lots and lots of North-Easterners come down to work in the South, because that's where the jobs are. After the ethnic violence in the North East, there were reverse threats in the south. It's complicated.
What? (Score:1)
Maybe this'll work for my lawn? (Score:2)
I guess I just ought to get me one of them socialist ghost mediums, and cellphone S&M operators, to scare them 'youngun varmints, to get off my lawn?
Few corrections (Score:5, Informative)
The ban on bulk SMS is for 15 days at the most. This is not censorship, but an effort to avoid mass hysteria.
Those of you who know India will understand what I mean. Even before the era of mobile phones it was somhow easy to spread roumours and generate hysteria in India. For example read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_milk_miracle/ [wikipedia.org] for one hysteria of 1995 regarding idols that drink milk, or 2006 where sea water turned sweet.
These efforts are to help crub the new hysteria. But I am doubtful about its effectiveness.
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Correction to Your Correction (Score:2)
Take a look at other initiatives by India's ruling govt on mobile phones:
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16174440,00.html [www.dw.de]
The ruling party wants to promote phones when they can help it win elections. But it wants to ban them when its ineffectual governance might get exposed. The ruling party are crooks.
Good idea... (Score:2)
The filthy POS bastards aka marketers were such a nuisance. The DND (Do Not Dial registry) never worked well...so "ban" is the way to go.
About the exodus...it is a minor event, in a country of 100 billion there is an exodus or pockets of violence almost every day. Indian Railway (South Western Railway to be precise) will beat the market...quarterly revenue will be excellent. Few nameless Railway babu's will get better bonuses. Their wives are going to buy costly and gaudy sarees
Re: (Score:2)
That's quite a baby boom! Still, I'm skeptical that their population could increase nearly 100 fold so quickly -- no matter how efficient the population is at fucking.
The problem with bans (Score:1)
The problem with bans is that they look good in theory or they work in the short term or under specific instances but introduce a host of other problems when implemented on a grander scale. Severely restrict the sale of guns and reports of gun-related deaths will go down and then rise again as people figure out illegal ways to acquire weapons. The Prohibition reduced the total amount of alcohol consumed but allowed organized crime to flourish.
I'd be happy to see Facebook banned. I'm sure that would increase
Mubarak (Score:2)
Different context, but Mubarak did this permanently a couple years before the revolution occurred. The reason was to stop people from easily organizing protests. I think we know how that worked . . .
Not sure where it stands now since I never felt the need to try.
Mubarak-racy (Score:2)
India's ruling Congress party are an entrenched kleptocracy who could easily give Mubarak's govt a run for its money.
India's rulers like to boast that they are the "world's largest democracy" - in reality, they're the world's largest Mubarak-racy.
The exodus is subsiding (Score:3)
Form here, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/exodus-of-north-easterners-from-bangalore-shows-signs-of-subsiding/989967// [indianexpress.com], so may be the ban has had some effect.
Phone call ban? (Score:1)
I hope they introduce a 5-phone-calls-per-day limit as well!!!
This would put an end to the nuisance of calls from Indian callcenters claiming to be from "Microsoft support" and luring innocent users into downloading AMMYY on their Windows PC and have people in India take over their PC to install malware.
This is becoming a real plague here.
Context? (Score:2)
allegedly due to the threatening messages
Sorry, what threatening message?
Following mass exodus of people belonging to north-east states India
Okay, I appreciate that the submitter's first language is possibly not English, but what the hell do the editors actually do around here?
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunately, the ruling party in India likes to stoke the fears of the Muslim community in order to milk them for votes. So they profit quite handsomely from stoking up ethnic tensions.
Not possible to send to more than 5... (Score:2)
Is that service available outside of India? How do I subscribe?
True Situation (Score:1)
(1) For years, illegal migration from neighbouring country.(Bangladesh).
(2) Locals suspect that over the years this has changed the population demographics of their state.
(3) So interested parties get into the act to beat up the supposed illegal migrants - who happen to be muslims.
(4) The central government has always played footsie with minority vote banks (wouldn't mind a demgraphic change since their vote bank would become a majority) and instead of addressing the main issue has always regu
Communal Award (Score:1)
The root cause of Assam riots is the fact that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bania_(caste) [wikipedia.org] Gandhi betrayed the Independence of Bodo aka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheduled_tribe [wikipedia.org] community in 4th August 1932 Round Table Conference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communal_Award [wikipedia.org]