Monday 1 February 2010

Be careful, you might land in trouble!

I have been on orkut since 2004, own blog since 2007, on linkedin since 2008, On facebook since 2009 and on twitter since 2009. Things have changed drastically from the orkut days to the now twitter days. I joined orkut purely out of excitment. I really didnt know what it was. What profile meant, how to use scrap book, etc. Things like album, photo comments, tagging evolved with time. I primarily used orkut to increase my friends count, write testimonials and get more testimonials! Human beings! They want to hear good about themselves everytime, all the time.

Now things have drastically changed. People express themselves more often. The status messages and tweets are the in thing. "What's on your mind?" is new phenomenon! I doubt if people actually write whats on their mind when they are writing it. It is more to suit and appeal and make a statement within the community.

The point of focus here is the headline "Inappropriate messages on social sites could get you arrested, fired, or even divorced." The statement immediately caught my attention and I rather decided not to publish my post which was on the gundagiri happening in politics and precisely Maharashtra politics. Valentine's day is around the corner and yes politicians are all charging up, to express their love towards Archies and Hallmark outlets, the CCDs, the shopping malls and innocent couples.

India’s IT Act, notified in October 2009, make status messages and Tweets admissible as electronic evidence and the onus of the posts on these accounts now rests solely on users, say cyber lawyers. Most users are blissfully ignorant that whatever they write in public domain can be produced as a proof of copy. A printout or screen shot is all that is required. Hmmm, I need to be more politically correct now.

A Gurgaon IT profesional was arrested in 2008 for posting an obscene message against Congress president Sonia Gandhi on his Orkut account. UK-based Divorce-online said in Dec09 20% of all its divorce petitions contain references to Facebook status messages. Now I dont want to make a political statement by commenting on the message on Sonia Gandhi, but how do you justify it.

fOoD fOr ThOuGhT: On one hand, you say that it is a democratic country and there is "freedom of speech". And this freedom is extensively used by our politicians openly in the media and their newspapers but when comman man tries to use it, he is suppressed. Agreed that you should avoid provoking statements but the right to express should not be suppressed. You almost made me ignore my post from posting which was on politics. Any takers?

14 comments:

  1. OMG. FB STATUS CAN CAN ME IN J.A.I.L??!!! this is ridiculous!!! Y is the government so stupid?!
    OMG, i tk my words back...they might put me in jail for calling it stupid.

    N i really fail to understand y these police ppl r so sucker abt couples. I mean what exactly are they trying to do? Preventing AIDS? But tht cannot happen in archies or landmark..so they shld just chill. Live and let love...

    Nyc post :)
    i totally agree wid u...democracy is nothn..if ppl would hv really concentrated more on other important thngs dan other useless stuff den India wldn't have remained a third world country...

    keep posting :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with most of the points you mentioned. Being politically correct shall need a little discussion.I am a moderator at a website and one sly comment landed me in a soup. :|
    Where is the freedom of expression if we are supposed to be politically correct :)
    Look at Gul panag she was the focus for joke by flyufools sometime back.
    Hence it is all about the snatching away of the freedom expression of nothing more.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah pooja! I guess issues like electricity, road, education has long been there and will always be there. After all, these are the issues which help them in elections.

    Issues like valentines day, IPL, etc need their urgent attention!... ;)

    Thnx a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  4. @pallavi: Even biggies like Mukesh Ambani, SRK, Amitabh and Sachin are not spared! So, we cannot expect much for the common man.

    Thnx for your comments.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ohk.. so IT act comes into play... i am least bother abt this. because India is a democratic states and democracy allow one to express his/her feelings, his thoughts etc etc., but yes not to attack anyone personally.
    And one more point... What abt those who creates fake profiles? wat if some1s profile is hacked? Wat if some1 claims its not his/her profile/account??

    Wat does IT act say in such situations??

    ReplyDelete
  6. @SBM: Shaant bhai shaant! Itna gussaa!... ;)

    Yeah I agree its a democratic country and we have freedom of expression but when the power is not in your hands, watch your words. Thats the whole point.

    About fake profiles, I guess IP address and stuff like that might be used to track the original user.
    Your genuine comments are appreciable.

    ReplyDelete
  7. animal farm by george orwell is so relevant even today
    some are more equal than others!

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Magiceye: Wow Animal Farm... One of my favourite book, read n number of time. It suits any situation right from Mughals, British, Industrial revolution to the present politics at all the levels. Nice comment!

    P.S.: Animal Farm book is a must read.

    ReplyDelete
  9. @ ☆Ths[Schrei]☆: Thnx a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  10. :))

    arrey har cheez ka limitation hota hain... and politicians using it.... coz of power!!!

    These are exceptions which have no solution and we need to live with that...
    if u remeber there ws a student in gujrat who ws arrested coz of paininting obscene paitings... and then the question ws wt does MF hussain does....

    so usually it bends down to power, money game....

    right now... there is war against SRK rahul gandhi and thackerey sena... who wins...no one.... all will play... and the one who will suffer is us....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yeh india hai.. yahan sab chalta hai.. :)

    just kidding.. it is indeed rdiculous.. valentines is comes so more time for police to harass couples and in process make some money..

    BUt yeah in todays day and age , baaki kuch ho na ho.. you got to be POLITICALLY CORRECT..

    here in UK if you say "that person with brown skin" its racist remark .. you have to say "the person with COLORED skin".. this is NOT RACIST..

    First time here, you got a good blog..

    ReplyDelete
  12. @ Chakoli: Well said! Its a game of power and the have nots generally suffer...


    @Bikram: Yeah you are politically correct!... ;)
    Thnx a lot. Hope to see you around.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I kinda dont agree.. I mean if there is freedom.. it cannot be at cost of others..

    ok..let me add, i'm not trying to support shiv sena .. and their opinion of valentine day.. but generally using this as an instance.....

    its not the couple thing.. its doing it @ public place that is opposed to...
    wht a couple does in closed walls is not opposed by any one...

    freedom always comes with responsibility... and that is why there are rules ......

    there are org, n different bodies like govt who we elect, to make those rules...

    Only problem is, in our system, the leaaders that we elect to make those rule are the wrong ppl .. who dont know Mangement by exception rules

    if "R" is wrong... they oppose the whole set of alphabets..hence.. buying n selling of cards or celeberating v day (anything that is linked to couples) is wrong and opposed to by them.....

    we suffer.. for sure.. but ..again... we are at fault..we chose the wrong body to govern ourselves..

    we land up getting parties with leaders tht are 10 standard fail..
    .. they just think of "vote banks" and how to win it... they work on extremes..

    all in all its a Vicious circle that all the people get into... n the loop goes on and on .. and on..

    ReplyDelete
  14. @Pratibha: I agree with you completey. Its a vicious circle and we are at the receiving end...Always!

    ReplyDelete

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