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#PornBan: “We don’t want to do moral policing” says Govt of India

The Government of India passed the buck for the banning of 857 websites last week to the the Department of Telecom, and said, again and again, that it doesn't want to do moral policing. Mukul Rohatgi, the Attorney General, said in court that a "long list" given by the petitioner, Kamlesh Vasvani, had been given, and "the department went and blocked without verifying." The AG also said that they blocked sites dealing in child porn, and pointed out that there are various shades of porn, including "hardcore and softcore". "Geographic frontiers are no longer frontiers. If it (porn) can be distributed, it can be stopped. How can you stop it on the phone? The other thing is that if someone wants to watch in the privacy of their bedroom, how can we stop that? These are now issues of 19(1)". Article 19(1) of the constitution of India provides freedom of speech, while 19(2) provides restrictions on free speech. Readers should note that in a different case last week, the Attorney General also argued that there is no fundamental right to privacy, under 19(1). "Can we be moral policing?," Rohatgi continued, saying "We are talking about digital India as an inclusive program. The Prime Ministers website has a mygov.in platform, and he has asked people to give inputs on his independence day speech, and Swachh Bharat. Crores of people can congregate there," saying that it's not possible for crores of people to congregate offline." Rohatgi also mentioned that a case was…

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Founder @ MediaNama. TED Fellow. Asia21 Fellow @ Asia Society. Co-founder SaveTheInternet.in and Internet Freedom Foundation. Advisory board @ CyberBRICS

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