The discreet charms of the nanny state
October 6, 2006, Shivam Vij
According to the blogger Shivam Vij, a dangerous precedent has been established in the complete removal of a website at the request of the Indian government. His main contention is that when the Chinese government blocks a site it becomes public knowledge, whereas in India, public debate is foreclosed by the covert attempts of the government to silently whisk away problematic sites. Although censorship of books and films happens all the time in India, this occurs with public knowledge and is open to comment, which is clearly more democratic than unilateral bans. However, it is unclear whether the author is against any sort of Internet censorship, or simply believes in proper public debate over this censorship.