Basically, it sounds like a lot of people are (perhaps reasonably) pissed off that some Orkut users created a "We Hate India" group. If you know how Orkut works, basically anyone can create a group in seconds, and anyone else can join it. Soon after that, there were stories about how Indian prostitutes were using Orkut as a way of finding clients. Then, a couple of weeks ago there were even more complaints about Orkut concerning tricksters putting up fake profiles of others, urging people to call or visit people, falsely claiming they were pornographers. Finally, this weekend, there were more complaints over some additional hate messages that had been posted to the site.
Some of these articles cite India's Information Technology Act-2000, which apparently bans this type of activity, suggesting that Orkut may get banned by the government. However, it would seem that this is very misplaced anger. Once again, the problem isn't with Orkut, specifically, but the people using Orkut. If Orkut is blocked, the same people will simply go elsewhere and do the same thing elsewhere. It doesn't solve the problem, it just sweeps it under the rug for about half a day until the same things pop up somewhere else.
Blaming the site pretends that if you block the site that the people who are actually responsible go away too. It doesn't work that way -- and, if anything, only emboldens them to find more and more places to make their point. The real answer is to go after the people directly if they are breaking the law -- not the site that carries their words.
Some of these articles cite India's Information Technology Act-2000, which apparently bans this type of activity, suggesting that Orkut may get banned by the government. However, it would seem that this is very misplaced anger. Once again, the problem isn't with Orkut, specifically, but the people using Orkut. If Orkut is blocked, the same people will simply go elsewhere and do the same thing elsewhere. It doesn't solve the problem, it just sweeps it under the rug for about half a day until the same things pop up somewhere else.
Blaming the site pretends that if you block the site that the people who are actually responsible go away too. It doesn't work that way -- and, if anything, only emboldens them to find more and more places to make their point. The real answer is to go after the people directly if they are breaking the law -- not the site that carries their words.
