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India makes 'liking' blasphemous content illegal
India's previously criticized Facebook for not censoring material that was critical of its government, so let's agree that the country has something of a strained relationship with social media. Now, however, the south-west state of Karnataka has announced that even clicking 'like' on a post could land you in jail for 90 days before you even get to see a magistrate. Because India has no blasphemy laws, any material that could offend someone's religious beliefs is prosecuted as hate speech, and that includes uploading, forwarding, sharing, liking and retweeting something. We hate to be cynical, but we can't imagine it'll be long before the first dissenting voice gets thrown in jail to protect the feelings of the government general population
Karnataka, India banning cellphones for kids under 16?
We can't even imagine what would happen here in the US of A if our government suddenly stopped everyone under the age of 16 from chatting it up on a mobile, but it looks like we just may find out how it goes down overseas when Karnataka, India does just that. Reportedly, its government is going to "ban cellphone use by children less than 16 years on the basis of advice of medical experts," and while specifics weren't divulged, apparently someone up high believes that "prolonged use of [handsets] by teenagers does affect their health" in an adverse way. Additionally, mobile dealers will no longer be allowed to sell handsets to youngsters under 16, and while a hard date for the ban hasn't been announced just yet, notification should be "issued soon." [Via OnlyGizmos, image courtesy of BBC]
