'...Since January 2016, there have been at least 18 cases of sedition lodged against various citizens, from students and politicians to anti-liquor activists, leaders and activists of reservation movements, Kashmiri activists and even the principal of a school who got a map of India wrong! Apart from Bhat, two other sedition cases were filed over social media posts, on Whatsapp and Facebook. In January, Anwar Sadiq was arrested in Mallappuram, Kerala for allegedly making insulting comments on Facebook about Lt. Col. Niranjan E.
'In their home in Sopore, the parents of 25-year old Tawseef Ahmad Bhat helplessly seek their son’s release. Tawseef was arrested by police in India and charged with sedition for speaking against Indian rule in Kashmir and endorsing Kashmir’s independence on his Facebook account. “Our son is just 25. Simply because he shared a post on social media the police has arrested him and kept him in confinement! We cannot understand why a grave charge of sedition has been slapped on him,” Inam-ul-Bhat, Tawseef’s brother told Kashmir Reader...'
'CHHATTISGARH Police on Thursday arrested a Kashmiri man and booked him on charges of sedition for commenting on, forwarding and “liking” several “anti-India” posts on a social networking site. Police said that Taufiq Ahmed, who had studied in Bhilai and now worked in the city, was arrested from a train at Sagar railway station in Madhya Pradesh and sent to judicial custody. They added that an FIR in the case had been registered based on a complaint from Ratan Yadav, the Bhilai coordinator of Bajrang Dal...'
'Eager to cut down on criticism of its governments and policies, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre has issued new draft rules for bureaucrats. While allowing bureaucrats to be active on social media, it prevents them from saying anything critical of the government, including its policies and actions. According to the draft issued by the Department of Personnel and Training, officials will be barred from criticising the government through any means, including humorous devices like caricatures.
'Police have arrested and charged with sedition a man from Kerala for allegedly making insulting comments on Facebook about Lt Col Niranjan E Kumar who was killed while defusing a bomb during a counter-terror operation at Punjab’s Pathankot air force base. Anwar Sadiq, 24, was arrested from his home in Malappuram town after the social media post sparked widespread outrage with many demanding immediate action and some prescribing “capital punishment”...'
'The government's official communications agency on Friday apologised for releasing a digitally altered image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aerial survey of flood-affected areas in Tamil Nadu the previous day, saying the photo it had issued as a "merger of two pictures". In the 24 hours since, social media users have had a field day putting out their own hilarious memes of the situation. Prime Minister Modi had flown to Chennai on Thursday evening to assess the situation in the flood-swamped city and surrounding areas.
'V.P. Rajeena, a journalist based in Kozhikode, has become the target of organised online abuse, after she shared her personal experiences of studying in a madrasa in her younger days. Facebook closed down her profile on Wednesday after mass reporting by her detractors. On Sunday, Rajeena put up a post in the social network on alleged instances of immoral conduct of madrasa instructors, which she claimed to have witnessed. The post touched a raw nerve and set off a torrent of abuses and open threats on her Facebook page and in her message box.
'On November 23, Aamir Khan made a statement on how his wife is scared of the growing disquiet in the country. His statement attracted opinions from across the country; politicians, fellow actors and people active on social media. But it has not only affected people’s opinion about him, it has also affected the brand he endorses. Snapdeal seems to be drawing a lot of flak only because Aamir is its brand ambassador. People took to Twitter starting another campaign called #AppWapsi asking others to not buy anything from Snapdeal and uninstall the app.
'The Indian government sought the maximum number of content restrictions from the various platforms of social networking behemoth Facebook in the first six months of this year than any other country globally. The world's biggest social networking platform said it granted requests from authorities in India for some 15,155 pieces of content to be blocked on its platform, its WhatsApp and Messenger apps and its photo-sharing app, Instagram. This was revealed by Facebook in its latest report on government data requests for the period between January and June this year...
'...Published below is the text of a note that has been circulating over different social media platforms. We have left the typographical and printing errors as they are in the original. Paranoid in its content, it is also illustrative of the way the RSS ‘rumour-machine’ works to produce lies. In earlier days, it used to start circulating from the morning shakhas via the shakha participants. Nowadays it moves from one social media platform to another, with lightning speed. The text below is remarkable and though distasteful, needs to be published in public interest.
