Indian Court says may "block" Google and Facebook, like China

I am pretty sure Google, Facebook and others will appeal in a higher court if this lower court does go ahead with blocking. There are clear provisions in the Indian IT act which prevents the website from any damage until it cooperates with the government and removes the objectionable material.

There has been a huge debate in the recent past whether the categorization of content as 'objectionable' can be done by the Govt. or whether it should be left to courts.

As discussed earlier, criticism of government or public figures is not out of bounds. Freedom of speech is very important and everyone values that in India. Print/electronic media is not regulated and they often criticize the government. However, they (especially print media) work under certain moral framework like not making any obscene remarks or vulgar attacks. I believe that is the sticking point for all the authorities in India. If traditional media can follow this "moral framework" then why not the Internet? And to be honest, I'm not sure how many people even understand the concept of user generated content based websites or web 2.0; let alone the inner workings of the Internet.

I fear Internet regulation will be the major theme of 2012. All the major countries are looking ways to regulate it. And its really sad.