To The Editor,
While the piece itself was largely agreeable, my problems with its peroration are manifold. In calumniating jurisdictional competitiveness, the author falsely concludes that “no legal action may be initiated against the website”. Without even delving into how the action may only be initiated against a legal entity, I must point out that the premise of multiple jurisdictions implies the possibility (if not a guarantee) of legal action. In the very next line, the author criticizes the lack of enforcement, attributing it to a deficiency in capability and calling it “a major obstacle to justice”. Here, there is a blatant failure to appreciate that such laws have been kept purposefully vague to facilitate both, internet freedom, and a subliminally greater expectation of privacy. They may also be juxtaposed with laws of ostensibly ‘developed’ countries like Singapore and China, where access to pornography is only possible through proxy servers; with the danger of falling prey to the government. surveillance. Moreover, given the open call for censorship, the author appears to be blissfully unaware of the collateral damage that sort of selective government surveillance will cause to the rights to freedom of expression, privacy, and access to information. It is no secret that India already has one of the largest centrally censored internet networks, evidenced by our consistently low rankings on global internet freedom rankings. Finally, while I acknowledge the potentially harmful psychological effects of excessive pornography, given our clogged criminal justice system and the abundance of constitutionally relevant questions that still remain tangled up in the judicial process, it is rightly of inconsequential concern to the government of the day. And at the risk of being tactless, I must add that polemic means a strong written or verbal attack on someone or something. It’s nexus with pornography, or associated laws continues to evade me.
Kanishka Dasmohapatra,
National Law Institute University, Bhopal.
The RMLNLU Law Review Blog 