In orkut,

A moderator of a community was jailed due to some abusive posts against Sonia Gandhi.

Personally, i don’t think the moderator can or should be held liable. Reasonable restrictions are imposed onto the speaker/poster. If such freedom is guaranteed, purporting or providing a platform for it cannot be restricted or be made liable upon .

On the other side of the tale, the Federal Courts have held in several cases the Publisher or Performer to be liable. This would mean that since the ultimate comment posted on the forum is visible to the public, it has been performed. This has been impliedly construed as meaning approved by the moderator or administrator of the website and hence he is treated to be the performer. ( the understanding is derived from Telecrompter v Columbia Broadcasting Company & also from Forthnightly Corp v US)

@ Yes

Are u making reference to this case

http://www.itexaminer.com/PCs/tabid/75/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/209/Man-arrested-over-Orkut-Sonia-Gandhi-comment.aspx

because this is not a moderator being arrested. Here the poster himself has been arrested and that is directly related to reasonable restrictions and freedom of speech :)

Interesting…

Does anyone know what happened to that Orkut guy? My guess would be that unless he said something to incite hatred or violence or treason, no court in India would hold him guilty. Then again, getting arrested is half the battle won already in quelling free speech surely…

I have been grappling with this issue for a while too. On the one hand, a moderator can hold himself out as a ‘mere conduit’ - I think internet service providers can use that defence in the UK and the US.

Take Blogger/Blogspot for example, where the administrator or service can have no control of everything that is posted. In such a case what is followed in most of the world is that the operator is only liable if they don’t respond to reasonable take-down requests of infringing content.

On the other hand, technically if there is no express law to the contrary, a moderator/admin is *literally* the publisher of the content, which is enough under the libel and similar offences, right?

Please note that this is mostly a theoretical argument from my side since there is not a lot of precedent on this in India (there may have been some case on Google on Blogspot in India but I don’t quite remember the details).

Anyone know if there is some express statutory provision or case law that can be applied here?

don’t worry, no one is criticizing The Godmother here…

[quote=“kianganz” post=2926]Interesting…

Does anyone know what happened to that Orkut guy? My guess would be that unless he said something to incite hatred or violence or treason, no court in India would hold him guilty. Then again, getting arrested is half the battle won already in quelling free speech surely…

I have been grappling with this issue for a while too. On the one hand, a moderator can hold himself out as a ‘mere conduit’ - I think internet service providers can use that defence in the UK and the US.

Take Blogger/Blogspot for example, where the administrator or service can have no control of everything that is posted. In such a case what is followed in most of the world is that the operator is only liable if they don’t respond to reasonable take-down requests of infringing content.

On the other hand, technically if there is no express law to the contrary, a moderator/admin is *literally* the publisher of the content, which is enough under the libel and similar offences, right?

Please note that this is mostly a theoretical argument from my side since there is not a lot of precedent on this in India (there may have been some case on Google on Blogspot in India but I don’t quite remember the details).

Anyone know if there is some express statutory provision or case law that can be applied here?[/quote]

I was thinking on the same lines. Unless there was something to constitute treason, I hardly believe he could be convicted of a crime.

Also, I think Due Diligence is to be the modus of determining whether or not the moderator can or cannot be held guilty.

Or thinking outside the box, how about applying the doctrine of last responsibility here ;) Think about it?!

(Blatantly unaware of case law or precedence for such matters. shall look into)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/technology/28internet.html?\_r=3&ref=technology

India Puts a Tight Leash on Internet Free Speech