India outshines China in internet freedom
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 19 April 2011, 13:38 IST   |    4 Comments
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India outshines China in internet freedom
Bangalore: No doubt that India's domestic corporate sector, supported by the country's rule of law, its democratic processes and comparatively healthy financial system, is a source of significant competitive advantage over China. But this is not the only area in which India has outshined China. According to a study, India is more internet-freedom friendly than the world's second largest economy. India has been named the 14th most internet-freedom friendly nation in the world, said a new report from Freedom House, an independent U.S.-based watchdog organization. The report titled, "Freedom on the Net 2011: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media" states that cyber attacks, politically motivated censorship and government control are among the threats to internet freedom. But India does not face any such imminent threat. The study identifies key trends in internet freedom in 37 countries and evaluates each country based on barriers to access, limitations on content, and violations of users' rights. The study found that Estonia had the greatest degree of internet freedom among the countries examined, while the U.S. ranked second. While Iran received the lowest score in the analysis, eleven other countries including Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand received a ranking of "Not Free". However, India does not figure among countries at imminent risk. In spite of recent incidents in India, where the government has tried curbing freedom of the digital media, India has favored better than most countries. Although India's internet penetration rate of less than 10 percent is low by global standards, access has expanded rapidly in urban areas, generating tens of millions of new users in recent years, says the study. "In the past, instances of the central government seeking to control communication technologies were relatively rare. However, following the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai and with an expanding Maoist insurgency, the need, desire, and ability of the Indian government to control the communications sector have grown," it added. In 2008, Parliament passed amendments to the Information Technology Act (ITA), which came into effect in 2009 and have expanded the government's monitoring capabilities. But the scenario is even worse in China, which has been ranked 34th in the list with 83 points. China boasts the world's most sophisticated system of internet controls, and its approach has become even more restrictive in recent years, the study said. The Chinese government has permanently blocked sites like Facebook and Twitter. As of 2010, at least 70 people were in jail for internet-related reasons. Last month, Google was charged with tax evasion along with three of its affiliate companies. The news of the tax cases came about ten days after Google accused the Chinese Government of 'blocking' its services. Google, which had 35 percent of the Chinese market before it moved its search engine over to Hong Kong following a spat with the Government, managed to return to the Chinese market this year after obtaining a new license accepting the stringent censorship rules governing the Internet in China. In response to the growing popularity of internet-based applications like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, many governments have started targeting the new platforms as part of their censorship strategies. So is the Chinese government. It appears increasingly cagey over the speed with which Internet has spread as it has quickly emerged as a new media threatening the relevance of the tightly controlled official media.

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