ECO506A ESSAY

Censorship and Net Neutrality

By:
Sachet Chavan
12212

Introduction:
The internet, as we know today is probably the biggest platform of communication right now.
But as Spidermans Uncle Ben said, With great power, comes great responsibility, we need to
make sure we use this technological marvel properly. Thus arises the need to monitor the kind of
content that should be allowed on the internet. This leads to censorship. Wikipedia describes
censorship as the suppression of speech, public communication or other information which may
be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as
determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions. Now there
are advantages and disadvantages to this and Ill try to cover both in the following essay.
Different countries have different levels of censorship in the media outlets present there. Now the
internet can also be treated as the same and thus the censorship also extends there. Now the
number of internet users keep growing each days and a special set of laws need to be established
by governments across the world so that this remains a transparent and efficient portal. Here is
where net neutrality and freedom of speech comes into play. Lot of countries are yet to make
laws on these issues though its very important to do this at the earliest.
The top 3 countries based on the number of internet users are China, USA and India. Now if you
look at the censorship policies of China, they are clearly very regressive and thus are conducive
to the idea of free speech. Most of the popular websites like Google, Facebook and other top
social networking websites are banned there. This in my opinion is a violation of human rights.
Every individual should have access to cheap and unblocked internet. The internet is a vast ocean
of information and it surely helps a lot of people. By blocking or diverting internet access youre
technically stopping that individual from getting an education of a sort. Now the term education
is being used very loosely by me here. Education here simply means the gaining the kind of
knowledge he wants.
But at the same were living in a world where everything is digitized. There is highly sensitive
information out there, which if found in wrong hands can be extremely dangerous. For instance,
information regarding the defence/military services can pose great risks to the security of the
country. And then theres also the issue of illegal and immoral content like child pornography,
gore etc being circulated. Also kids and minors use the internet and theres not a foolproof
system in place through which we can effectively monitor the kind of content they would be
coming across while being on the internet. So thus it is also important to restrict access to such
kind of information.
Censorship is important, but up to what extent? Where do we draw a line? These questions are
highly subjective. It entirely depends on the mindset of the people pertaining to the censorship. I
think a good way would be to have some sort of public voting system through which the users
can also give inputs as to what kind of content should be blocked and what shouldnt be.

Background Information and

Context:
The internet was primarily developed in the US and thus Americans form the second largest user
base. ARPANET, which came around in the 1970s in different branches of University of
California in USA can be said to a predecessor to the internet. The internet doesnt have any
governing body as such. The most common methods of internet access include through a dial up
modem via telephonic networks, broadband over telephonic or coaxial or fibre-optic cables, WiFi, satellites, cellular technology (2G, 3G, 4G). The internet which was originally used only for
research and security reasons has now ushered into households thanks to the development is
Personal Computer market. Internet can now directly be accessed from homes, and internet cafes
and there are a number of public internet access points such as cafes, restaurants and airports.
I wont really be exaggerating when I say that in most of the technologically developed
countries, internet is now a basic need. All our communication devices are pretty much useless if
not for the internet. And realizing this pioneers in the field of technology such as Mark
Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are trying their best to provide internet for cheap rates in developing
countries so that they are set on a path to progress. Quoting an article here: In his Is
Connectivity A Human Right? white paper describing Facebooks proposal for forming a free
Internet service for the worlds poor, Zuckerberg calls online connectivity a human right.
Facebook collaborated with Reliance comm. to launch the internet.org app.
But everything isnt well and good in the land of internet. As corporate houses realize that
internet is an essential need, they try to make money out of it. The recent statements of Mr.Sunil
Bharti, the CEO of Bharti Airtel said that Facebook providing cheap internet is essentially a
burden on the bandwidth and its not fair for the ISPs(Internet Service Providers). This is where
net neutrality comes into play. The ISPs are essentially business houses and considering they
want to make more business they sometimes resort to seemingly unethical practices to increase
their profits. One of these instances in the introduction of FUP by Indian ISPs, a trend which was
started by Airtel. Recently Airtel was caught in another storm where it raised a proposal to charge
differently for VoIP(Voice over Internet Protocol; eg. Skype, Viber) in cellular networks. This is
a clear violation of the principles of net neutrality which essentially says that all data should be
treated equally and not to overcharge a particular website/app more or less thus creating a bias
against it. Charging different rates for different services essentially means that the ISPs are
essentially looting us and the content creaters.

Heuristic one: Where Have I seen this

before?
Censorship takes place in many forms and has been taking place since a long time.
Governments, organisations and individuals all indulge in censorship. The governments or
organisations indulge in censorship when they feel it threatens interests of the greater good.
Individuals indulge in self censorship out of fear of the government or organization. There can be
different kinds of censorship, like moral censorship wherein morally wrong content is taken
down or military censorship where information pertaining to national security is protected or
political censorship wherein information is held back from citizens. Indias landmark Right to
Information act or RTI was revolutionary in a way that it allowed the common man to access
information which was previously unavailable for him to access. It allowed transparency in all
government processes and reduced the chances of any wrongdoings on part of the government.
But still there are countries out there like China, North Korea etc with a totatalirian governments
which thinks its best for them to protect its citizens from harmful information. This is also done
so that citizens are kept in dark or to promote their propaganda.
One of the most important and popular literary works of 20 th century, 1984 by George Orwell
deals with the issue of censorship. It shows us a dystopian world where free speech is curbed and
everything is censored and everybody is under surveillance. I dont think it will take long for
those totatalirian states to reach that kind of scenario if they go on with their government
policies.
Censorship on the internet, as I said, before is sometimes very essential. Different websites have
different policies regarding the kind of content they want to put up and thats how it should be.
For instance it would be highly inappropriate to put up adult/pornographic material on social
networking sites as we all know that a lot of minors are active on them. Similarly it is up to us on
how we use the internet as there is a lot of morally objectionable content out there. There are
things which not all of us might be comfortable seeing. One instance of internet censorship is the
website blocks on IITK networks. As we all know, adult websites are banned in IITK and maybe
theres some strong logic behind it. But the filter being used to do so seems pretty outdated and
sometimes even bans normal websites like Urbandictionary, 9gaga etc. There should be an
alternate system in place with an appropriate age lock so that people can access to any legal
content they want to.
Now we all know that most websites revenue comes from advertisements. So there have been
instances where ISPs are blocking/ promoting data packets to a particular websites so that their
traffic is reduced/ promoted. This is fundamentally wrong. It is like saying that just because you
own a super expensive fancy car traffic policemen would allow you to go first through a traffic
signal than people who own a bicycle. This is a violation of human rights and should not happen.

Heuristic two: Who benefits from

what?(Qui Bono?)
Governments and organisations who indulge in censorship do think that they might benefit from
it. That may or may not be necessarily true. A recent example would be killing of two young
bloggers from Bangladesh. All they did was to write about religious tolerance, trying to separate
religion from extremism. But some narrow minded individuals couldnt stand it. But instead of
appealing for the content to be taken down they decide to brutally assassinate the creators of the
content. The fact that something as small as a blog provoked them to take such a ghastly step
tells us how far the reach of the internet might be and how much it might affect people. It is
definitely wrong for people to kill someone in the name of religion and I hope that the
perpetrators soon get the deserving punishment.
Majority of the trends and policies and regulations on internet and the services regarding around
the world are based on how the policies and regulations in USA are. This shouldnt be surprising
as it can be said to be the founding country of the internet. But the FCC(Federal Communication
Commission), which is the US government organization that takes the decisions regarding how
the ISPs charge their services doesnt seem to take the principles of net neutrality very seriously.
It seems to be hand in glove with the major ISPs who are trying to take advantage of this
situation by lobbying for the big websites. This essentially means more revenue for the
government and more profits for the companies. They are the ones benefitting from it but not the
consumers.
A similar case in seen here in India where ISPS have introduced a concept of FUP or Fair Usage
Policy which essentially means that there is fixed upper limit to how much of data you can use
per month depending on what youre paying. This doesnt happen in most of the developed or
advanced countries with high internet users. They can unlimited access to whatever amount of
data they want to use. But the Indian ISPs seem to be way more greedy than those in the west.
One of the few perks of studying at a tech institute is the unlimited high speed internet. But the
reality in the rest of the country is pretty saddening. The internet speeds are low and people are
being overcharged. The TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India)or the IB (Information &
Broadcast)ministry should take up this issue immediately and put proper fair laws into place so
that these malpractices are stopped.
The fact that big internet based corporations like Google and Facebook are trying to provide
more and more people with decent cheap internet means that it is also the web based businesses
that grow from good internet. There have a huge number on online start ups providing jobs to
millions of people and for these companies to sustain we require a healthy internet connection
for masses and they will be the ones benefitted from it. So the governments should definitely
step in and solve these issues as soon as possible.

Heuristic three: Which big groups are

involved?
As told above the major groups involved who benefit from censorships are the governments and
organizations who indulge in them. Now from their point of view it is necessary to control the
kind of information they want their people to see so as to maintain peace and order amongst the
masses and to prevent any sort of untoward incidents from happening. But for the people it is
something which deprives them of their right. They lose the chance to access information that
might be essential for them to know certain issues regarding their government and thus might be
very helpful for them to decide whether to decide to vote them in power next time or not.
The recent case can be seen of the new CBFC(Central Board of Film Certification) appointed by
the newly formed BJP government. The IB ministry and CBFC recently made a decision which
said that now even adult films cant contain profanity. This is unfair to the film makers for whom
it might be necessary to use profane language to portray the character or to create a certain kind
of impact on the audience. It is their freedom of speech to decide what they want to say and how
they want to say. And for exactly that purpose there are different certificates which classify films
age appropriate and also tell us the kind of content that we might be coming across in the film.
But the individuals at the helm of these organisations dont seem to understand that and maybe
from their point of view the censorship is good.
Now coming to the issue of net neutrality. We can say that maybe net neutrality is a subtle form
of censorship. There might also be some sort of political agenda to prevent traffic to certain kind
of website perhaps. The people benefitting from this are obviously the ISPs and maybe even the
governments who might rake in more money. But this totally hampers the spread of information
and knowledge. I mean the fact that the ISPs can channelize traffic means that they can also
direct traffic to a certain website and block certain ones. This shouldnt be allowed. Its a vicious
circle and more people should be made aware regarding such issues. Because the consumers or
citizens also form another of the major group caught in this conflict.
Another group involved, which can be a subset of the consumers are the content creators
themselves. They are the ones that want to spread certain ideas and internet probably provides
the best platform available as it has a really wide reach and is relatively cheaper. But due to the
issues being discussed in this essay i.e. censorship and net neutrality, maybe their content is not
able to reach out to the intended audience. This essentially means that the money were paying to
get the kind of content that we want to see and are also legally and morally justified, is not
exactly being used for that purpose and as consumers that means that were being cheated.

Heuristic four: Who faces which

power?
Now this part is somewhat confusing because the groups are very much interdependent on each
other. But the ultimate upper hand can be said to be that of the consumers or the citizens because
the choice is ultimately theirs. It is their representatives which form the government. They are the
ones who make the government and being consumers they are the ones that have the choice as to
what ISP they choose. Thus the ISPs who violate the principles of net neutrality can easily lose a
lot of business.
But at the same time ISPs and content creators can manipulate the users into having access only
to a specific set of services but thats a highly distant possibility because we all know that the
internet is like a big giant playground and you cannot really stop people from accessing
information. There are so many different ways in which they can bypass all the blocks and
censors to gather information and data they want. Currently there are over 400 million people
who have to use VPNs(Virtual Private Networks) to access filters and the censorship to see the
content they want. Similarly there a lot of P2P(peer to peer) networks such as torrents, DC++
and other such services in which users can directly share their information with each other than
having to post it on the web.
The censors need to understand that you cannot really tame down the internet mostly so because
it is entirely privately owned. There is no regulatory body and there cannot ever be. Thus it is
better if they accept that it is the users who decide who runs the internet. But after all they are the
ones who own or look after the physical machines which run the internet so maybe it is after all
in their hands. A recent example can be that of the infamous Indias Daughter documentary by
BBC, on the sensitive issue of 2012 Nirbhaya rape case which occurred in Delhi, which was
banned by the Indian High Court. As soon as the verdict was out, the documentary started
trending across different social media sites such as Facebook, twitter etc and people started
uploading it on various video sharing websites and that made it reach out to a lot of people.
Similarly the case of Airtel, which I wrote about earlier, in which they were planning to charge
more for data through the VoIP calls. Their logic was that VoIP services are hampering their
business of normal cellular phone calls and thus it is justified that they charge the VoIP phone
calls as they do for normal calls. That proposition was rolled back by them on intervention by
TRAI and thus a major violation of net neutrality was prevented from happening in India. Also
during this time a lot of people who use VoIP services are they are cheap and efficient
discontinued using Airtel as their telecom service provider and thus Airtel did lose business.

Conclusion:
So in this essay Ive tried to cover issues which are not typically addressed by the main stream
media or are rather a little unique because most people arent aware of those. That might be
because these issues dont affect anyone directly but still they are a violation of human rights and
people need to be made aware about them so that a major problem in our future can be avoided.
As we are becoming more and more dependent on technology, it is important that we not neglect
these issues as these are very important for us.
I tried to co-relate these issues with fairly recent examples to get a better understanding of the
problems. Unnecessary censorship is a huge issue. And in a conservative country like India
which is still not very open to the idea of free speech and where there are so many different
cultures, it is extremely important that the people in power do the right thing by promoting the
right kind of ideal. Every individual or groups of individuals have certain opinions and they have
every right to express their thoughts and opinion on a public platform. Now its up to the
audience to decide what they want to hear/see/read and what they dont . And I agree it is not
possible to appease to everyone through your opinions, there might be some who might not like
it but the only right approach would be not hear/see/read the content you dont like. Nobody is
forcing you to consume that content as if someone is then thats wrong too. Censorship is not the
answer. This world needs to be more tolerant.
And coming to net neutrality, which I feel is also a subtle form of censorship because youre
essentially stopping people from consuming certain kind of content, is also a huge burning issue.
A lot of developed countries are taking it seriously and there are activist groups which are
working really hard to make sure that a fair and just system of internet usage occurs. The
developing nations should also take note and start making laws regarding this issue so that later
in the future the business of providing a basic need doesnt become unfair.
Also the most important conclusion is that it is the masses or the consumers who are at the root
cause and at the benefits of these things. We get to decide and it is us who will be benefitted from
free speech and free internet. So it is important that we are aware of what is happening around us
before it is too late. And the other groups involved here should also keep in mind that they will
also be affected by the decisions they make. The Streisand effect(which essentially means that if
some piece of information is attempted to be censored or hidden or removed, then it spreads or
become popular even more faster) is an example where a wrong decision can completely
backfire and thus they need to careful as well.

References:
Most of the information I have written above has been my personal opinion and based on the
news that Ive been following. Also as this isnt something very scientific or research-able there
isnt much literature available anywhere. Thus most of the information has been sourced from
the internet, from different news websites and opinion articles and it wont be possible for me to
remember exactly where I first found out about the news.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/15/everything-you-need-toknow-about-net-neutrality/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/opinion/the-future-of-internet-freedom.html?_r=0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality
https://gigaom.com/2012/03/23/open-vs-closed-what-kind-of-internet-do-we-want/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/zuckerberg-is-spreading-the-internet-across-the-globebut-is-it-only-for-facebooks-gain/
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-12-30/news/57528969_1_voip-airtel-s-tariffplan