What happened to the freedom of speech and expression, I wonder? Imagine running a community on Orkut, and being held accountable for every message posted. This is exactly what happened to Ajith D, a 19 year old computer student and an Orkut account holder, who apparently created a “Shiv Sena hate community” on Orkut. Mumbai cyber crime tracked him down and initiated criminal proceedings against him. Not just that, the site is being constantly supervised by the police after the Sena violently protested against Orkut for carrying anti-party remarks.
Ajith has denied posting any death threats against Sena’s Chief Bal Thackeray, however, has admitted on creating the anti-Shiv Sena online group.
Try running a simple search on Orkut, and you’d find hundreds of such “hate communities” online – “I hate Ekta Kapoor”, I hate George W. Bush” and so on, where people post all kinds of comments, share all kinds of personal views. I’m sure many Orkut users (and others) have already deleted their online communities after this incident blew up.
Share your thoughts on what you think about this case? Also, do you think that your online freedom of expression is being threatened?
After this incident, I personally feel very uncomfortable creating a community online. Being held accountable in the court of law, for statements made or opinions shared within the community, in my books, is a little too excessive!
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