Demanding that the Central government withdraw the Information Technology Act and create a positive atmosphere for the world-wide web, a group of like-minded people have come together to launch a movement against web censorship called ‘Save your voice'.
Addressing mediapersons on Monday, cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and journalist Alok Dixit said the movement was against Internet censorship in India. It all started after Mr. Trivedi's website was banned by the Mumbai police without any prior notice, Mr. Dixit said.
“His website www.cartoonsagainstcorruption.com that started during Anna Hazare's movement in Mumbai was suddenly banned by the Mumbai police without prior notice. Cases of “treason” and “national insult” were also filed against him. When you are booked for some offence, you should know what the offence is? By doing this, the government has snatched our freedom of speech and our right to the Internet and web,” Mr. Dixit said.
Director of Cyber Law College and chairperson of Digital Society Foundation N. Vijayshankar and executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society Sunil Abraham came down heavily on the IT Act and government banning websites under the Act.
“The government is banning websites and deleting social networking (Facebook) accounts without prior notice or warnings. Because of the quiet and illegal moves made in the IT Act, the government has gained more power to act in all possible ways,” Mr. Abraham said.
“Responding to an RTI application, officials said 13 websites had been banned. But this information is false as the number is much more,” he said.
National tour
Protesting against this, the campaigners — who are on a national tour — will meet Internet users, organise meetings to tell them about the IT Act and also encourage them to raise their voice against the Act, Mr. Dixit said.
He said the campaigners will dress as persons with disabilities and take out a march from India Gate in New Delhi on May 13. “This march will symbolically relate to the disability of the populace after the implementation of web censorship. Like-minded people and Internet users can join us in the march. Similar parades will be conducted in various cities,” he added.
Details are available on www.saveyourvoice.in or www.facebook.com/saveyourvoice; Ph: 07499219770.