Source: nation.com.pk

Every time, I’d try to open a torrent site, the message pops up on my screen, saying: ‘Surf Safely’. This website is not accessible’. Goddamn it! Just what does the PTA take us for? For downright anarchists? For blasphemers? For warmongers? Or for something more worse and sinister? 

Oh, but it is so true a saying: A sick mind would only see things through a sickly lens. For it – the government – takes the very source of information for mere negativity and disinformation.

“I understand, there is objectionable, nay highly offensive and anti-social material on the YouTube and torrent sites. But is that all? Does that mean we kill the very messenger, who brings the information? Just tell me, if you spot some lice in a child’s hair, do you pick lice out or do you kill the innocent child? Well, apparently, you are killing the child and not making any concerted effort to pick the lice out and killing them at all.

“It is a shame that a major part of the civil society and media is keeping a criminal mum on the issue. An issue that concerns the very basic right of our citizens: the free flow of information. And you, the PTA, just fail to see there is another side to the coin. That this other side is the quintessence of the whole phenomenon.

“That there are millions of research papers on these sites. That there are thousands of lectures by world-renowned scholars. That there are hundreds of thousands of journals, e-books, audio books and documentaries on subjects ranging from science, arts, history, nature, geography to culture and beyond.

“It is clear now the government abused our right to protest. It is more like a political issue now. We wanted to register our protest on the blasphemy issue. What the politicians did was to go a step further and rather to block the public’s access to their own scandals. Establishment included. By failing to maintain law and order in the land, they subscribed to such underhand tactics. And so, we virtually lost the much-fabled virtual world.

“Now that is quite strange for a government, which does not tire in gurgling out claims of the underground, the tube, metros, and bullet trains. Oh God. Just how can you start the tube, when you cannot even filter specific links on a simple website like the YouTube? And, just how can you start bullet trains, when you don’t have bucks for even running the traditional locomotives?

“So away with your self-righteous ‘Surf Safe’ shenanigans. Away with your totalitarian tantrums. Down with your undemocratic attitude. And hey, the new Minister of State for Information Technology! What made you to deactivate your Twitter account? Was there just too much of criticism of your policies? Is this how you go about things in real life? To bury your head in the sand like an ostrich, when adversity strikes? You seem rather a nice person, mademoiselle! But not so, when my Mozilla browser comes up with that obnoxious message: ‘Surf Safe’. That is just too condescending of you.
“And tell you what? You are supposed to be out there for the IT development in the country. But what you, in actual fact, need is to develop your own IQ. This wholesome banning and blocking of the site domains would not help at all. Educate yourself a little bit. Study the dynamics of the new technology. Learn from the experiences of other countries. India is just next door. If it can sort out the issue, why can’t you?
“As for the general public, you should know …continue reading at nation.com.pk