Live data from Hacker News

India’s government wants total control of the internet

wired.com

41–50 of 207 posts

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#41

The documentary produced by the BBC "The Modi Question", was uploaded onto YouTube several times the week of release but taken down by request of the Indian Government. I was astonished a foreign entity can stop the world watching something if they don't like it, it wasn't just geo blocked it was removed off YouTube.

But it's on the iPlayer and works perfectly? So you can watch it in your own country https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0dkb144

Not outside of the UK without a VPN (And let's be honest, who buys one in a country which has restricted internet to begin with?) but if they haven't blocked this link in your locale here's an option to watch it as well:

https://archive.org/details/india.-the.-modi.-question.-s-01...

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#42
post #7

Yes there is increasing threat to freedom of speech, but India is not new to this. The left leaning Congress had even worse norms when they imposed martial law (Emergency). India has a robust sphere of public debate and draconian laws and acts of discrimination by the government are regularly criticised. In more cases than not the government embarrasses itself by its clumsy use of power to restrict opposition, like i…

. BJP is clearly toning down its more radical elements how exactly this is measured? do you have any stats to support your claim not the observation going whats printed on the media / social media.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's on the iPlayer and works perfectly? So you can watch it in your own country https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0dkb144

Kind of not the point. The BBC being unwilling to be intimidated doesn't imply that Youtube should be willing. And I wonder if that BBC link works in India. Or if this one does: https://btdig.com/search?q=modi+question&order=2

> BBC iPlayer only works in the UK. Sorry, it’s due to rights issues.

BCC iPlayer doesn't work in any country other than the UK, so there isn't any question of it working in India. BTDigg is blocked in India, along with most piracy oriented websites, since long before the BBC documentary thing I think.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#44

The documentary produced by the BBC "The Modi Question", was uploaded onto YouTube several times the week of release but taken down by request of the Indian Government. I was astonished a foreign entity can stop the world watching something if they don't like it, it wasn't just geo blocked it was removed off YouTube.

"You want access to my market of a billion potential consumers? Do what I say!" Simple as that really. The government of Tuvalu making a similar request probably would have been politely ignored.

The bigger (and richer) the market, the stronger a country is in negotiations. All those politicians who would like their country to leave the European Union should be reminded of this.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#45
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was timed perfectly. 20 years later, nobody can question the documentary makers. A hitjob is hitjob.

A hitjob is a hitjob, but a pogrom is not a pogrom?

EDIT: My response was sarcastic. Just characterizing the right wing misinformation accounts on HN.

The pogrom is an internal matter. A hitjob is external interference. /s

Btw, I watched the documentary and it actually covers the Supreme court judgement, so the responding accounts are actually spreading misinformation.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A corporation trying to align with a specific belief system would mean some countries would fall outside of it. This leaves them with two choices - either they stop doing business in said countries, or maximize profits by conducting business in those countries by loosening their belief system to include the countries' negatives, such as censorship of political discourse in this case.

Yes, companies have to adhere to the laws of a country or stop doing business there. The blame lies with the Indian Government

OP is arguing that they should choose to stop doing business instead of adhere to the laws.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#47
post #5

This is the dark side of the same impulse that compels big tech companies to follow the GDPR even though they aren't headquartered in Europe: If a big enough market is run by an insane jackass, that insane jackassery will spread through the world on the wings of corporate policy. I really wonder what's going to happen when the India-China rivalry spreads to conflicting laws for tech companies that want to do business…

I don't see tech companies changing their practice in say Brazil to meet European laws.

If India make it illegal to host a video critical of their PM, and google block that video from access in India that's one thing

If Thailand make it illegal to slag of their king and google block users from Thailand watching a video about the king that's a similar thing

If Europe make it illegal to track users without their consent and google block users from Europe that's a similar thing

If China make it illegal to talk about Winnie the Pooh google block users from China searching, that's a similar thing

If America make it illegal to talk about tools to circumvent DVD copyright protection and block users from America searching, that's a similar thing

In all cases Google is obeying local law so they can do business in those countries, but that local law applies to local people.

Now copyright (not DMCA but Bern style copyright) is, so I could see why google would remove a BBC copyrighted film, although they tend to ignore copyrighted material unless the copyright holder complains.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#48

The documentary produced by the BBC "The Modi Question", was uploaded onto YouTube several times the week of release but taken down by request of the Indian Government. I was astonished a foreign entity can stop the world watching something if they don't like it, it wasn't just geo blocked it was removed off YouTube.

China's done similar things, the most prominent I can think of being them bullying the NBA into policing what their players can say.

And NBA franchise executives

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's on the iPlayer and works perfectly? So you can watch it in your own country https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0dkb144

BBC iPlayer is restricted to UK residents only.

It's quite sad, it's a generic "this video isn't allowed globally due to rights". That makes perfect sense when you're talking about last nights showing of Moanna, or even Eastenders (where background music in the pub might not be cleared for use outside the UK), but when it comes to a program like this you'd hope exceptions would be made.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#50
post #5

This is the dark side of the same impulse that compels big tech companies to follow the GDPR even though they aren't headquartered in Europe: If a big enough market is run by an insane jackass, that insane jackassery will spread through the world on the wings of corporate policy. I really wonder what's going to happen when the India-China rivalry spreads to conflicting laws for tech companies that want to do business…

Based on what I've seen most tech companies are already pulling out of China or scaling back their presence so I don't think it will be a big deal.

Most tech companies are still making mountains of money in China, it's just that they are making a lot less than they'd like.

The advertising forms sell space to Chinese advertisers, the hardware forms sell their hardware, the software firms... See their software used everywhere, but only sometimes getting paid for it, and are chomping at the bit to turn that around. SAAS vendors are largely getting the short end of the stick, but most of them also make money from one of the fields above.

Cultural exports, mostly in the form of films, of course, are also booming.

If the US, the EU, China, or India says 'jump', most of them will, after complaining about it, eventually ask 'how high'? That's just the nature of the business. (And is why they also have extensive lobbying operations.)

Post reply on HN