Orkut Banned in India

“Orkut Banned in India” - Will this ever become a real headline? It can happen as various political groups are preparing a move to make it happen. In India power still has power and political parties are synonyms for power but surprisingly we still are the largest democracy. Orkut has been under contriversies for various reasons. My previous post lists some of it http://www.idealwebtools.com/blog/orkut-scams/.

Today while going through Times Now I ran across their major coverage, “Controversy over Orkut ban“. They were juicing the popularity of Orkut by taking live opinions from various parts of India (In Kolkata they were at Flury). The news says,

The popular internet networking site Orkut was recently under attack by Shiv Sena workers, who went on a rampage after disparaging remarks made against Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray & Marathi icon Shivaji were posted on the site. The Sainiks vandalised a cyber cafe in Thane, Mumbai and demanded a ban on Orkut because of the remarks posted on one of its forums, essentially group blogs that allow people to write and post their views on any topic - without censors.

Here is my take on the controversial issue :-

1. Orkut is not a site, it is a culture or a concept. Even if someone bans the major instance of Orkut concept, orkut.com, there will born another instance with equal power.
2. Orkut concept is blended with social web (web 2.0) and is inseparable. To ban Orkut concept, one will have to ban social web.
3. Is there any communication model that doesn’t carry cons. Isn’t mobile phone helping terrorists?
4. “The Sainiks vandalised a cyber cafe in Thane”????? What did the cyber cafe guy do? Who will repay his losses? Even after this you expect people to love you not hate? People reserve the rights to love or hate anyone. If there are hate groups then there are bigger love groups as well, see yourself http://www.orkut.com/UniversalSearch.aspx?q=Bal+Thackeray&pno=1&searchFor=C or http://www.orkut.com/UniversalSearch.aspx?q=Shivaji+&pno=1&searchFor=C but still people reserve the right to express their opinion. There is a well saying, “Greatest loved elements are highly hated too”.
5. Isn’t social web empowering the true government, the people? More that the cons I see pros. Now people are THE power.

How to tackle it?

• Stop vandalizing wrong people. If this carries on then much connected society can show its true power too, remember the blogspot ban.
• At a proactive level setup a committee to look at the bigger picture, which can keep the web clean to the possible extent. Creating awareness and better online laws are needed.
• At a reactive level ask Orkut to ban the group
• Look at the 100 positive things about Orkut and forget about one or two, that happens everywhere :), Enjoy Orkut.

Similar Ban proposals for various other social web

• Youtube could be banned in India due to a supposedly offensive video of Mahatma Gandhi doing a Pole dance and other ungandhi like antics. The video features a comedy skit by a Hawaii-based Non-Resident Indian, Gautham Prasad, who has now apologized to the people offended by the video.
• Blogs banned in India over misuse, later rectified.

What is your take on it?

Other related posts

1. Chirkut Vs Orkut - My first post on orkut.
2. Is Orkut’s Memetic strength a misinterpretation? - About Orkut scrap book and Orkut’s misinterpreted strength is finally interpreted.
3. A list where orkut is used for drug/pic-scam/hate-groups.
4. social networking flood

7 Comments »

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1. Will Google ever give details of people running such groups? Google is anyway slamed by Watchdog Group on Privacy, read http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/09/AR2007060900840.html for more details.

   
   
   AjiNIMC on June 11, 2007 - 12:20 am @ 12:20 am

2. Well….. I believe it is very hard to stop expression of emotions and feelings of people in common.. next to impossible….
   in biggest democratic country….. even after being communist, China ain’t capable enough stopping these emotions….

   I believe banning such social networks is against our constitution which gives us power of expression.

   These so called social (Anti) groups who is continuously into mission of so called Samaj Sudhar (Social Work), we have seen how they are against Valentines day, beating todays Romeo and Juliet in park, this and that.. and so on….

   I don’t know who are they to show us way through compulsion….

   if these groups ain’t curbed on time then they’ll turn on like uncontrolled fanatic groups of Pakistan whom we commonly known as terrorist groups….

   
   
   Rajesh on June 11, 2007 - 8:15 am @ 8:15 am

3. Shiv Sainiks are usually emotional and don’t think. Instead of finding out who it is who is talking about Shivaji, they blame orkut. I guess they will tear down the Taj Mahal if they find that someone has scrawled graffiti abt Shivaji on it.

   Just show them groups on Orkut that trash Pakistan, they will start supporting Orkut like nobody’s business.

   
   
   ADi on June 11, 2007 - 11:40 am @ 11:40 am

4. [...] The Followers of the Marijuana God , The Holy Monkey Brigade  and other saffron-robed specimens with room temperature IQs (Thank you, Terry Pratchett) don’t like Orkut, because it has 500+ Pro Shivaji communities, 60+ Pro-Thackeray communities and precisely one anti-Thackeray community (Thanks to AjiNIMC’s excellent post ) [...]

   
   
   Some Orkut some are bad « Doing Jalsa and Showing Jilpa on June 11, 2007 - 3:14 pm @ 3:14 pm

5. Political parties make us feel better when they speak about democracy and we speaking in their favor. But they go into such rampage if someone says against them. Where is the democracy and freedom of speech then? It seems that such parties fund the govt and care less about any individual rights.

   
   
   Bijoesh on June 12, 2007 - 3:08 am @ 3:08 am

6. Thanks for all the valuable comments.

   
   
   AjiNIMC on June 12, 2007 - 5:03 am @ 5:03 am

7. A bunch of Sainiks caused mayhem by attacking a cyber cafe and its owner the other day? Is that what you call law? Is it acceptable? Just because some insensate loser expressed his hatred for Shivaji & Shiv Sena by introducing a community on Orkut. India being a democratic country where each individual has the freedom of speech. People can convey their message through any medium if the need be so. For a fact banning Orkut is like chopping a tree and not uprooting it. Yesterday it was Yahoo,Hotmail & Hi5 today its Orkut,tomorrow it will be some other networking site. Have the government with various security measures been able to stop terrorism? Banning Orkut where on an average every seven out of ten computer literate people are accustomed to will certainly be a bad move by the Government.

   
   
   Kevin B on June 16, 2007 - 6:18 pm @ 6:18 pm

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