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India's Authoritarian Lapse

Minister Kapil Sibal's calls for online censorship are a ploy to shield the government from criticism.

India's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal claims he's against censorship. But lately he has been meeting representatives of Microsoft, Google and Facebook to convince the companies to prescreen content originating in India which might insult or offend Indians. His Exhibit A is images of religious icons that he considers obscene. Exhibit B is an offensive page on Facebook taking a dim view of his leader, Sonia Gandhi, president of the ruling Congress Party.

While Mr. Sibal cloaks his...

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