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India is actually a democracy. For better or worse, I think India has the right to determine censorship policies for its citizens. Foreign Western corporations
by RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
India is actually a democracy. For better or worse, I think India has the right to determine censorship policies for its citizens. Foreign Western corporations deciding that they know better than the Indian government and using their platform to spread dissent against the elected government is not a good look for a Western corporation given the history of British East India company.
- westmeal 6y agoHow is it possible to have a democracy while censoring what your citizens can see?
- ttt0 6y agoAccording to some in the West, censorship is actually "saving democracy".
- ulfw 6y agoWow what a load of crap. So a democracy in your mind can do anything they want because reasons and oh let's bring up the ugly west and colonial times too for good measure...
- reallymental 6y agoYeah I think "democracy" means the exact opposite of what you've said there. The people have asked for free speech, not censorship. And dragging the British East India Company into every argument about India sheds more light into the inadequacy of us Indians to move past it. We're supposed to be healing ourselves by constructively criticizing our behavior towards others and ourselves...not by endlessly blaming the past for our current actions. Disclaimer: I am Indian.
- gregjor 6y agoDemocracy and free speech do not necessarily go together. Democracy is a system of government “by the people,” usually in the form of voting for representatives. Censorship and free speech do not necessarily follow from that political system, being more in the realm of basic human rights. Around the world democracy takes many forms. So do cultural and political notions of free speech, and government’s role regulating and censoring speech. If the majority of Indian people want free speech, but their government does not honor that, then their democracy is dysfunctional and unrepresentative in that regard. A majority of Americans support stricter gun control, but our government does not honor that, so American democracy has its own dysfunctions.
- runeks 6y agoWhat if, in a democracy, 51% of voters agree to take away the voting rights of the remaining 49%? Would this still be a “democracy”? Related to this is the question of whether a democracy even makes sense without freedom of speech. How is the voter supposed to know who to vote for if the opposition party is not allowed to criticize the incumbents?
- gregjor 6y agoI don’t intend to argue theoreticals. I meant to point out that democracy and free speech are not the same thing. A hereditary monarchy with no democracy can allow free speech. A democratically elected government can impose censorship and limitations on speech.
- blowski 6y agoAllowing governments to engage in anti-democratic behaviour is not a good look for any company that wants to “serve the public conversation”.
- jtsiskin 6y agohttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56393944 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56393944 “Earlier this month, in its annual report on global political rights and liberties, US-based non-profit Freedom House downgraded India from a free democracy to a "partially free democracy". Last week, Sweden-based V-Dem Institute was harsher in its latest report on democracy. It said India had become an "electoral autocracy". And last month, India, described as a "flawed democracy", slipped two places to 53rd position in the latest Democracy Index published by The Economist Intelligence Unit.”
- hashhar 6y agoPretty sure what you are saying is the opposite of democracy. Free speech is democracy - censorship is not. Or have they succeeded in redefining it in school textbooks now?
- colinmhayes 6y ago"a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives." Sure free speech is related to democracy, and it's hard to have a successful one without free speech, but democracy does not require free speech.
- puranjay 6y agoDissent against the elected government is a part and parcel of democracy.