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by jk 5288 days ago
"I say: So what? As long as it does not promote hurting people, or people are forced to watch it, it shouldn't matter."

It matters a lot in India. To understand the real problem, you have to understand the social problems in India (and Asia to some extent). Even though literacy rate is increasing, religious fanaticism is not decreasing. It is very common to find highly educated people talking bad about religions they don't believe in. A small post derogating some religion is sufficient for silly extremist groups and crappy media (the news website ibnlive is a good example) to make a big issue. Extremist groups bash these posts to give themselves publicity. For media, it is all about ratings and advertisement so they keep broadcasting news about such posts all day. Both these groups conveniently shut their eyes on the religious polarization caused by their actions. This hurts the society and it hurts the country economically.

I also don't believe in hindering free speech. But when I see the social problems around me, I feel we will be better of with some regulations.

2 comments

Thats true, the media focuses too much on the infrequent cases. I'd assume that these posts constitute less than 0.01% of the posts on any of the aforementioned social networks, probably less, but then receive the most media attention. This kind of media behavior is a global problem however, and not particular to India.
Its always hard to protect free speech. But this requires creative solutions, and censorship is not one of them.