

Why was an Indian man held for sending a tweet? - yati
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20202275

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jt2190
This story leaves me feeling helpless. What can I, living in the United
States, do to change this statement:

    
    
      In reality, [Section 66A of the IT Act of 2000] is more often used by 
      the state as a weapon against dissent. In each such case, police action 
      has been swift and harsh.
    

I'd love it if someone would comment, or better, write a blog posting with a
list of actionable steps that I can take to improve things.

~~~
sturadnidge
Whilst a laudable sentiment, you might be better off putting your energy into
ensuring a similar law is never passed in the US.

We have have a very similar law in the UK, Section 5 of the Public Order Act
1986, and I'm sure it won't be long before something similar is proposed in
the US after the 'innocence of muslims' debacle / tragedy (which is exactly
the kind of thing that the UK law was brought in for, but has been similarly
abused by the authorities).

We also have rather interesting laws surrounding libel in the UK... India
seems to be a bit more sane on that front at least.

------
sergiotapia
The same thing happened here in Bolivia.

Samuel Doria Medina, tweeted that President Evo Morales had sex with a minor
(17 years old) and she was pregnant. The following day the mother of the minor
(a political person of power in Evo's cabinet) files for jail time among other
things.

This was about two months ago and to be honest, media died down on it, and I
have no idea what happened to the process. Was she in fact pregnant? Was the
president in fact involved sexually with a minor? Lots of questions, no
answers.

~~~
guard-of-terra
17 years old is not a minor. And you don't tweet about other peoples' sexual
(or reproductive indeed) lives. If person C tweets about the sexual life of B
and A, then C is a bad person. They should not have done it.

P. S. I live on another side of the planet.

~~~
oh_sigh
Every society sets different ages for when sexual activity is acceptable. You
may not agree that a 17 year old is a minor, but it isn't your decision.

I would recommend you do not go to Bolivia, have sex with a 17 year old, and
try to argue that a 17 year old isn't _really_ a minor.

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hackerboos
Maybe the headline should be "Why were 2 men arrested and convicted for
tweeting in the UK?"

~~~
stickdick
Actually, it was for creating a Facebook event. Arguably even more private.

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/16/facebook-riot-
calls...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/16/facebook-riot-calls-men-
jailed)

~~~
hackerboos
That's a different case. Details for the Tweets below:

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9431677/Twitte...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9431677/Twitter-
joke-trial-conviction-quashed-in-High-Court.html)

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/09/matthew-...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/09/matthew-
woods-joking-april-jones-facebook-sickipedia)

~~~
stickydink
My bad, worth a mention though.

This one's a little more outrageous :|

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pGrabber
Unfortunate, but real state of affairs in the so called "India Shining" story!
Corruption is ingrained in public and private offices. And my biggest concern
is that it's become a way of life and people are indifferent to it.

~~~
yati
This indifference is but forced. It seems that here, the "authorities" need to
be appeased to get them do the job they're paid for. If you cannot appease,
you are screwed.

------
chinmoy
Things like this one happened several times in Bangladesh. The government
imprisoned several people over time for posting statuses against the prime
minister on Facebook.

------
known
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index>

------
BadDesign
STUPID HUMANS!

------
magobarca
because India is a corrupt mafia run state?

~~~
sudhirj
Corrupt, yes. Mafia-run, no. There are limits to the insults we will take.

~~~
sudhirj
Come to think of it, implying that some of our politicians were smart enough
to be mafia would be highly insulting to the mafia.

Some are wannabe mafia, though. They're the ones we try to avoid. The others
are corrupt, but often their motives are fairly aligned with public interest.
For instance, they take cuts on all infrastructure projects, so our
infrastructure tends to improve at a fairly good pace - though obviously not
as fast as it theoretically could.

~~~
therandomguy
"so our infrastructure tends to improve at a fairly good pace"... not quiet.
The politicians get HUGE kick backs from the contracts. Where does the money
come from? By sourcing cheap sub-standard materials. This leads to shit
infrastructure with everything crumbling within couple years of construction.
I have seen pictures of N. Korea and they seem to have better infrastructure.

