I'm in two minds regarding this. This reminds me of the clampdown in many of the middle-eastern countries during the Arab spring. On Principle I don't believe that the state should be allowed to place such restrictions on civilian freedom. However, I can't deny that the measures worked. The protest had become extremely violent and needed to be defused instantly. This measure possibly saved lives.
Not a freedom of speech issue. whatsapp messages spread quite virally. A large number of users of such services who have got access to mobile internet quite recently are susceptible to take a spam/hoax message as an authentic piece of information, specially the ones which can directly affect the person. Also, you need to keep in mind that services like whatsapp have become a significant source of information for many people.<p>A large number of such messages that I have come across are photoshopped images, mix it with the ease of sending bulk messages and you get an explosive mixture.<p>One way to tackle such situation will be, IMO, to make bulk messaging an expensive (computationally) operation, something of the nature of HashCash.
It's amazing how many people on this thread are keen to go for the easy, rights-restricting solution (just turn off the internet locally for a bit!) rather than the harder question: why are people primed to riot? Like Ferguson, it's usually a combination of longstanding grievance and trigger event.
This is very common in India, for the government to take bizarre actions and then retreat shamefully when they figure they're exposed. The porn ban is just one example — for those of you who don't follow, the Indian government tried to ban porn and did it, albeit half-heartedly, and then were forced to undo and lift the ban.<p>Even the story in reference here isn't an uncommon sight. In Jammu & Kashmir (A state which has a disputed status, yet is claimed to be an "integral part" of India by the ruling political party) it is very common for the government to shut down mobile internet and all mobile facilities on 14th and 15t h August (Which are the countries independence day)<p>Heck they had even banned text messaging here until 2013. Some "freedom of speech", eh?
This is something that speaks to the need for rumor dispelling engines <a href="http://www.unahakika.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.unahakika.org/</a><p>Instead of cutting off information it should be directed and rumors dispelled through disseminating the truth.
In first look it doesn't speak well of a democratic country. But loads of false information is spread using SMS, other messaging services (like watsapp) and social platforms. If lives can be saved and bring back things to normal by doing so, then it is very much justified. The people who are being killed or facing inconvenience because of the protests are also citizen of the same democracy. Right to live is more important than right to have internet.
India turns off mobile internet, calling and SMS facility in the state of Jammu and Kashmir multiple times a year.<p>India turned off SMS facility for ~4 years from 2009 to 2014 in the state of J&K.
Well this was done as a precautionary move so that people stop spreading rumours and videos of affected areas.<p>Also to stop mobs to communicate in mass with each other.
mmm so the digital world will also be part of bans/strikes going forward. So parties will now call for bundh will ensure online shops are also closed. <joke>If telephone booth and post office is closed why should the 2g/3g/4g and land line should work they should also stop..</joke>
The Egyptian government did the exact same thing during the January 2011 revolution. And they even took it a step further by cutting all mobile communications (calls and texts) and cutting landline internet (ADSL). Surprisingly, not a single person was asked or blamed till now.<p>Very sad to see the same situation happen again!
I'm from Ahmedabad.<p>Background information:<p>What is happening is not a religious issue or in any way related to the communal riots 15 years ago.<p>From Wikipedia:<p><i>In India, the Other Backward Castes (OBC) status invokes affirmative action which provides reserved quotas in education and government jobs. In Gujarat, 27% of seats are reserved for OBC (Other Backward Castes), 7.5% for Scheduled Castes and 15% for Scheduled Tribes for a total of 49.5% of all seats. The Supreme Court has capped the maximum reservation at 50% in their 1992 judgement.</i><p>What decides if you are OBC, SC, or ST? Your surname, and the community your family belongs to. Note that membership to one of these segments used to strongly correlate once with lower economic status (and therefore opportunities), but in recent years this correlation is significantly weaker.<p>The agitation is a result of the unsustainable caste politics quoted above. 49.5% of people getting in through a quota is <i>absurd</i>. Now I think that elevating downtrodden sections of society (through economic incentives, or even a reasonable quota) is a good thing. but when <i>half</i> of all seats in universities and stable government jobs are tied to a quota, the playing field for the "general category" is significantly shrunk, and people are going to get frustrated.<p>The community that is protesting are the Patels. They are huge in Gujarat; they're all over the strong middle class spectrum, and parts of the upper class. What I mean to say is that they are not even remotely an oppressed downtrodden segment of society. They happen to be an entrepreneurial and dynamic class; if you're in the UK or the US, you probably are aware of Patels because they constitute a huge percentage of Indian immigrants/expats.
My point being: Patels asking for reservation is ridiculous.
I guess only in India can a community <i>demand</i> to be labelled as "backward".<p>But when the playing field is so small, is it a surprise that everyone now wants their own space carved out?<p>I hope this protest will die, because animosity between such a large segment of society and others can become a source of problems in the future. But I also hope that it will force the government to rethink the crazy huge reservation system.<p>People in Ahmedabad are feeling scared and angry right now. Just outside my parents' home, protestors/vandals lit three buses and a bus terminal on fire yesterday. Then there's the police, here's a video of the them going on a power trip: <a href="https://twitter.com/ndtv/status/636808983131525120" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/ndtv/status/636808983131525120</a><p>PS: Not all Patels are asking for reservations, there are a number of dissenting factions as well.
Thats why India should have more communities like <a href="http://battlemesh.org/" rel="nofollow">http://battlemesh.org/</a> for creating decentralized adhoc networks
The website <a href="http://thenextweb.com/" rel="nofollow">http://thenextweb.com/</a> accesses your FB credentials without asking for your consent.
The headline can't be more misleading by the way. It was done to contain spread of violence, not to stop discussions.
India has quite a history of communal riots[0], and Gujarat is a state where violence tends to become really wacky. As a kid I've lived a few years in Rajkot, Gujarat, during and after the Ayodhya riots and violence spread easily based on rumour. But it also has a long history of censorship.<p>I can understand why the Indian government shuts down a service like mobile internet, they have had a great number of casualties due to these communal riots. But it seems far from the right thing to do.<p>But the root of the problem is so much a social problem, and the current government (as well as the past governments) have done way too little to introduce more social equality. The backward class programs have not fixed the problem of the caste society, and the country still benefits largely of the enormous cast differences. Modi and his BJP have used the caste system, both for their businesses (Gujarat mainly is a booming business state) and political benefit (it is way easier to get your election going through the system of castes).<p>Modi and his group had a strange role during the Muslim-Hindu riots of Ghodra, and his stance towards Muslims is highly doubtful [1].<p>I wonder what more will come up on this story in the following days.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_violence_in_India#Gujarat_communal_riots_.281969.29" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_violence_in_India#Gu...</a>
[1] <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/19/opinion/being-muslim-under-narendra-modi.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/19/opinion/being-muslim-under...</a>