The headline and text of the story have been edited due to errors. What's happening? The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has asked social media platforms to "immediately remove content that encourages, glorifies or justifies" the June 27 Udaipur murder, Reuters reported. The government stated in a notice issued late on June 29 that the removal of the content was necessary "to prevent any incitement and disruption of public order and to restore public peace and harmony." A man was killed in his tailoring shop in Udaipur, Rajasthan on Tuesday. Two machete-wielding religious extremists in a video claimed responsibility for it, raising tension across the state and prompting a mobile 24-hour internet shutdown. Why it matters? This order from MeitY is one in a long line that aims to pre-empt disturbances by putting the onus on social media to judge and remove offending posts. The broad interpretations of what content 'glorifies or justifies' the incident in question creates ambiguity and leeway for censorship. Seen in context of the contentious IT Rules, notable for increasing authorities' oversight of online speech, this can lead to an eventual policy of pre-censorship. Pre-censorship is when platforms filter and/or remove content before it is published. This policy was proposed and junked once a decade ago. The junked idea of 'pre-censorhip': Interstingly, the idea of pre-censorship from social media platforms is over a decade old. Kapil Sibal, during his tenure as the Minister of Electronics and IT in 2011, had talked about the idea. It was…
