A few days ago we received a notice from our SMS aggregator service that they would be shutting down all SMS and MMS (multimedia messaging) facilities for 15 days by order of the Department of Telecommunications of India. This order was in response to Assamese migrant workers in cities such as Banglore and Hyderabad who were fleeing these cities in large numbers due to fear that they were going to be the targets of communal attacks in the wake of riots in Assam. SMS messages had been used to propagate these rumors and fear mongering, including messages warning of Muslim retaliation that have gone viral.
We at Awaaz.De are categorically opposed to the use of mass messaging to stir communal violence and fear, and we support government efforts to prevent such actions from happening. However, we think it is wise to always have the concept of ‘proportionality’ in mind when considering solutions to a problem.
In this instance (and this is not the first time) a government ministry responded to a social unrest in one region of the country by cutting off a basic communication facility used by hundreds of millions of people all across India for a significant length of time. There are less heavy-handed approaches the government could have used to stem the panic.
In general, we expect that India’s leaders would seriously consider the impacts on citizens and of legal precedent when making such decisions. Politicians in India should open up to the fact that SMS is not just a way teenagers gossip and for spam. For example, many businesses across the country will be negatively impacted by this decision. This is not to mention the implications of government censorship and freedom of speech that the ban entails.
In addition to the bulk SMS ban, telecom providers later gave notice that they were limiting person-to-person SMS to 5 per day. The story continues…
