इंटरनेट ने ही हमें वह मौका दिया था जब हम फ्रीडम आफ स्पीच का सही मायनों में इस्तेमाल करने लगे थे. हमने भ्रष्टाचार के खिलाफ आवाज उठाई और एक आन्दोलन खड़ा कर दिया. फ्री स्पीच का सिंबल समझी जाने वाली मीडिया जो कि सरकारों के हाथों की कठपुतली बन जाती थी, आम आदमी की आवाज के आगे मजबूर हो गईं. एक फ्री इंटरनेट ने ही हमें बताया कि ग्रेजुएशन करने के लिये कौन सा कालेज बेस्ट है और यह भी कि कौन सी दुकान पर सबसे सस्ता मोबाइल अवेलबल है. इंटरनेट पर हमने दोस्त बनाए और अपने डिश्कशन फोरम स्टार्ट किये. अगर हम गा सकते थे तो हमने गाया और अगर नहीं गा सकते थे तो उस गा रहे अपने दोस्त को इनकरेज किया. हमने अपने ब्लाग बनाए और उनको पढ़ने के लिये दुनियाभर से रीडर्स भी ढूंढ लिये. और यह सब हुआ क्यूंकि हमें एक अनसेन्सर्ड इंटरनेट मिला. श्रद्धा शर्मा और कोलावेरी इसके बेहतर इक्जाम्पल हैं.
हमारी सरकार ने गुपचुप तरीके से हमसे यह आजादी छीन ली है और अब हमारा यह इंटरनेट आजाद नहीं रह गया है. सरकार हमारी वेबसाइटों को बैन कर रही है और फेसबुक एकाउंट और पेज डिलीट कर रही है. Information Technology (IT) Act में गुपचुप तरीके से किये गए गैरकानूनी बदलावों से तो अब सरकार के हाथों में इंटरनेट की पूरी कमान ही आ गई है. यही वजह है कि हाल के “Press Freedom Index” में इंडिया की रैंकिंग 122 से गिरकर 131 पर पहुंच गई. प्रेस फ्रीडम के मामले में कजाकिस्तान, साउथ सूडान और अल्बानिया जैसे देश भी इंडिया से बेहतर हैं. Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2011 की रिपोर्ट में 2009 के बाद से इंडिया को इंटरनेट फ्रीडम में "Partly Free" की कैटगिरी में रखा गया है. हाल ही में IT minister कपिल सिब्बल की वेबसाइटों पर लगाम लगाने की कोशिशें दुनिया के सामने आ गई थीं. सरकारी कई और तरीकों से इस कोशिश में लगी है कि किसी भी तरह इंटरनेट की लगाम सरकारी हाथों में आ जाए.
सरकार संविधान के मूल नियमों के खिलाफ जाकर यह सब कर रही है और इसके बारे में हम इंटरनेट यूजर्स अब तक बेखबर हैं. कल्पना कीजिए उस दिन की जब आप सुबह उठकर अपना फेसबुक अकाउंट चेक कर रहे होगें और आपको पता चलेगा कि सरकार के खिलाफ किये गए आपके कमेंट की वजह से आपका फेसबुक ही डिलीट कर दिया गया है और आप पर क्रिमिनल चार्जेज लगा दिये गए हैं. क्या आप अपने ब्लाग पर एक ऐसे लोगों का एडमिनिस्ट्रेशन चाहते हैं जो कि आपके लिखे गए कंटेट को बिल्कुल नहीं समझते हैं. क्या आप नहीं चाहते कि इंटरनेट पर अपको अपने विचार रखने की आजादी हो?
आइये सरकार की इस शाजिश के खिलाफ ‘Save Your Voice’ आन्दोलन का हिस्सा बनें और अपनी फ्रीडम आफ स्पीच के लिये आवाज उठाएं. क्योंकि Albert Camus ने कहा था- “A free press can be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom a press will never be anything but bad”.
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Save your voice is a campaign to save the freedom of internet, to hoard the freedom of speech, to raise our voices for a strong democracy and for our better future. It is a movement initiated, so that we can speak truth; express our thoughts without any trepidation to keep our points in front of the Government which is practicing dictatorship by restricting the common man’s voice.
Internet gave us the liberty to raise our voices against corruption. In real means we started understating the worth of freedom of speech through the medium of internet. We brought a great movement of India against corruption largely by using internet. Media which is considered to be the symbol of free speech which has been the puppet in the hands of politicians got helpless in front of the voices of the common folk and heavily participated in the movement against corruption and took common man’s voice to the nation.
Internet, slowly and steadily became the part and parcel of our lives. Through internet we learnt the art of social networking, we made some worth friends, and we came across the pool of innumerable knowledge in almost all the spheres of life. Just a click and you are around the globe. We got the career directions; we explored ourselves and even got known for our respective talents through blogs and different discussion forums and all this happened because of an uncensored free internet. The best examples are Shraddha Sharma and Kolaveri Di.
Although we have ample of advantages of free internet but our government has silently tried to snatch this freedom of speech and expression over internet and web. Internet is no more a free voice now. The government is banning the websites and is deleting the Facebook accounts without any prior notice or warnings. Because of the quiet and illegal moves made in the IT act, the Government has gained more power to act in whichever way they want. This is the reason why India’s ‘Press Index Number’ fell on 131 ranking from 122. In the context of freedom of press even the countries like Kazakhstan, South Sudan and Albania are better than India. According the report of Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net 2011, India has been categorized as ‘Partly Free’ in the context of Internet freedom. Recently IT Minister Kapil Sibbal’s attempt on banning the websites has been revealed in front of the whole nation. The government is trying its best to take the power of controlling internet in its hand.
The government is making these moves against the basic rules of the constitution and the internet users are still not aware of this upcoming disaster. Imagine, one fine morning you wake up and you find that your Facebook account has been deleted because of your one status against the Government and criminal charges has been put on you. How would you feel? Do you want your blogs to be administrated by such people who don’t even understand the content of your blog? Don’t you want your freedom on internet?
Save you voice is a campaign to raise your voice against such restrictions on freedom of speech. Come and join hands with this campaign and be the master of your own destiny because Albert Campus has very well said, “A free press can be good or bad but most certainly without freedom a press will never be anything but bad”.
Why debate governance of the Internet?
The Internet is a public, global system of interconnected commercial, academic, household and government networks. Unlike most communications media, Internet technology is based on global, open and nonproprietary standards. The mix of open standards, diverse networks, and the growing ubiquity of digital devices makes the Internet a revolutionary force that undermines traditional media such as newspapers, broadcasting, and telephone systems, and challenges existing regulatory institutions based on national boundaries. The institutions governing the Internet are relatively new and open compared to traditional domestic and intergovernmental forums. Internet-based communication tools are enabling new forms of global governance and new ways to participate in these institutions and shape policy.
Internet governance affects a wide range of social and political issues. It affects who gets to participate in the online economy. It affects intellectual property – witness the attempts to control and regulate Internet-based communication in order to protect copyrights and trademarks. It determines who gets access to the key technical resources, such as domain names and IP addresses, that make Internet service possible. As a target of government surveillance, it affects privacy and civil liberties. It affects freedom of expression, forcing the world’s diverse policies to be harmonized. Internet governance provokes “high politic” debates over the global balance of power, as the US government holds unilateral control of critical Internet resources against the will of users and governments in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Our Demands
We support transparent and participatory processes for making internet policy and the establishment of five basic principles:
• Expression: Don't censor the internet.
• Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.
• Openness: Keep the internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create, and innovate.
• Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don’t block new technologies, and don’t punish innovators for their users' actions.
• Privacy: Protect privacy and defend everyone’s ability to control how their data and devices are used
Internet gave us the liberty to raise our voices against corruption. In real means we started understating the worth of freedom of speech through the medium of internet. We brought a great movement of India against corruption largely by using internet. Media which is considered to be the symbol of free speech which has been the puppet in the hands of politicians got helpless in front of the voices of the common folk and heavily participated in the movement against corruption and took common man’s voice to the nation.
Internet, slowly and steadily became the part and parcel of our lives. Through internet we learnt the art of social networking, we made some worth friends, and we came across the pool of innumerable knowledge in almost all the spheres of life. Just a click and you are around the globe. We got the career directions; we explored ourselves and even got known for our respective talents through blogs and different discussion forums and all this happened because of an uncensored free internet. The best examples are Shraddha Sharma and Kolaveri Di.
Although we have ample of advantages of free internet but our government has silently tried to snatch this freedom of speech and expression over internet and web. Internet is no more a free voice now. The government is banning the websites and is deleting the Facebook accounts without any prior notice or warnings. Because of the quiet and illegal moves made in the IT act, the Government has gained more power to act in whichever way they want. This is the reason why India’s ‘Press Index Number’ fell on 131 ranking from 122. In the context of freedom of press even the countries like Kazakhstan, South Sudan and Albania are better than India. According the report of Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net 2011, India has been categorized as ‘Partly Free’ in the context of Internet freedom. Recently IT Minister Kapil Sibbal’s attempt on banning the websites has been revealed in front of the whole nation. The government is trying its best to take the power of controlling internet in its hand.
The government is making these moves against the basic rules of the constitution and the internet users are still not aware of this upcoming disaster. Imagine, one fine morning you wake up and you find that your Facebook account has been deleted because of your one status against the Government and criminal charges has been put on you. How would you feel? Do you want your blogs to be administrated by such people who don’t even understand the content of your blog? Don’t you want your freedom on internet?
Save you voice is a campaign to raise your voice against such restrictions on freedom of speech. Come and join hands with this campaign and be the master of your own destiny because Albert Campus has very well said, “A free press can be good or bad but most certainly without freedom a press will never be anything but bad”.
Why debate governance of the Internet?
The Internet is a public, global system of interconnected commercial, academic, household and government networks. Unlike most communications media, Internet technology is based on global, open and nonproprietary standards. The mix of open standards, diverse networks, and the growing ubiquity of digital devices makes the Internet a revolutionary force that undermines traditional media such as newspapers, broadcasting, and telephone systems, and challenges existing regulatory institutions based on national boundaries. The institutions governing the Internet are relatively new and open compared to traditional domestic and intergovernmental forums. Internet-based communication tools are enabling new forms of global governance and new ways to participate in these institutions and shape policy.
Internet governance affects a wide range of social and political issues. It affects who gets to participate in the online economy. It affects intellectual property – witness the attempts to control and regulate Internet-based communication in order to protect copyrights and trademarks. It determines who gets access to the key technical resources, such as domain names and IP addresses, that make Internet service possible. As a target of government surveillance, it affects privacy and civil liberties. It affects freedom of expression, forcing the world’s diverse policies to be harmonized. Internet governance provokes “high politic” debates over the global balance of power, as the US government holds unilateral control of critical Internet resources against the will of users and governments in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Our Demands
We support transparent and participatory processes for making internet policy and the establishment of five basic principles:
• Expression: Don't censor the internet.
• Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.
• Openness: Keep the internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create, and innovate.
• Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don’t block new technologies, and don’t punish innovators for their users' actions.
• Privacy: Protect privacy and defend everyone’s ability to control how their data and devices are used
