India Won't Tolerate Abusive, Obscene Content on Streaming Services, Minister Warns (techcrunch.com) 68
India will not tolerate use of abusive language and display of obscene content in movies and TV shows on on-demand video streaming services, a key minister has warned in a move that illustrates how the nation's IT rules have "handed over direct ministerial power for censorship." From the report: Anurag Thakur, Union Minister of Information Broadcasting and Sports and Youth Affairs, said at a press conference that use of abusive language in the name of creativity will not be tolerated and that the government is receiving a growing list of complaints about increasing abusive and obscene content. Thakur warned that New Delhi will not shy away from "making any changes" in the rules to address this situation.
I truly hate (Score:2)
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Then Microsoft will go, prevent all useful free access, and sell it at some price that is beyond the means of any one person.
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> You are talking about the ideal of communism. So far no one has been able to implement the ideal, to accomplish the ideal
Yeah, then EVERYONE would be dead. After all... equality. Hahahah
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> Communism has killed no one - a handful of countries that practice Communism have
Guns don't kill people either. People kill people.
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Italy was a fascist state for about 21 years, Germany for 12 years. The Soviet Union from 1917 until 1991, and China from 1949 until today. There are still significant debates about whether the starvation of millions of people in Ukraine or Chinese in rural areas during the Great Leap Forward were actually planned, or just the inevitable consequence of utter stupidity and whole legions of regional yes men telling Moscow and Beijing what they wanted to hear.
That's likely the case with the millions that died
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What a strange hill to die on.
So... (Score:2)
...Indians will no longer see any Indian movie, because what's more abusive than the castes system?
Also, "City of Joy" wouldn't be played at all... you know why.
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...Indians will no longer see any Indian movie, because what's more abusive than the castes system?
Also, "City of Joy" wouldn't be played at all... you know why.
Ah thats ok, they've thought of this already.
India will have a designated streaming service for that!
India can shove it where the sun doesn't shine. (Score:3, Insightful)
I admit it, I have issues with India. Their still existent caste system, to their pollution to their overpopulation, to their corrupt government practices, to their collaboration with Russia.
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I admit it, I have issues with India. Their still existent caste system, to their pollution to their overpopulation, to their corrupt government practices, to their collaboration with Russia.
Not to mention, their treatment of Indian women. We have people over her who reee about "microagression" yet say very little about their rape culture.
Strange world.
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It sounds like troglodytes who want to keep their old ways versus modern thinkers. We have a similar problem in the USA. Rural dwellers want most the 1800's back and fight like Hell to get back there. They want the "freedom" to discriminate against women and others. The Old Testament of the Bible even says men rank higher than women. The rest of us are dismayed by such thinking.
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It sounds like troglodytes who want to keep their old ways versus modern thinkers. We have a similar problem in the USA. Rural dwellers want most the 1800's back and fight like Hell to get back there. They want the "freedom" to discriminate against women and others. The Old Testament of the Bible even says men rank higher than women. The rest of us are dismayed by such thinking.
If you google India's rape culture, you'll probably have a difficult time saying the USA had a similar issue.
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If you google India's rape culture, you'll probably have a difficult time saying the USA had a similar issue.
There's probably plenty of embarrassment to go around for both countries. Open acceptance of rape might be more pervasive in India, but the US has far more reported cases of rape. The US definitely has a rape and sexual assault problem. Which country has the bigger problem? Numbers don't even tell the story. The rape numbers are just for reported rapes. In the US, only a third of all rapes are estimated to be reported. I wouldn't be surprised if the percentage of reported rapes is even lower in India
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I admit it, I have issues with India. Their still existent caste system, to their pollution to their overpopulation, to their corrupt government practices, to their collaboration with Russia.
I'd go easy on India. They are genuinely trying to address the caste issue, but that's not something you can solve in a few years or even decades. In terms of pollution they're still behind the US in absolute terms, despite being multiple times more populated. In terms of the Corruption Perceptions Index [transparency.org] India is not great, but not terrible either. "Collaboration with Russia" is a very selective term; they are choosing to pursue their own interests, and if it's over those iof the West, then so be it. They don't hate the West as Russia does, but they don't feel like they owe the West any particular favors. Can't blame them, really.
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Yes, this is in business. I've watched them repeatedly use their cheap labor to take work, do it horribly, wrongly, completely wrong, but cheaper and they know how to sell it. I'm dealing with it now on a number of
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>>They don't hate the West as Russia does, but they don't feel like they owe the West any particular favors. Can't blame them, really.
"The west" is not asking for any favors, just asking that they condemn the violent aggression of a former superpower against it's neighbor. It's really the absolute least that a supposedly freedom-loving democratic country can do.
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> supposedly freedom-loving democratic country
More than that... a supposedly freedom-loving democratic country that has, like Ukraine, been invaded by its neighbors in living and recent memory. In India's case, the invaders were Pakistan and China and enjoyed little success. But I think Pakistan is still going at it, trying to take over some mountain passes high in the Indian portion of the Himalayas. So one would reasonably expect that their sympathies would be more with other victims of invasion, no
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"The west" is not asking for any favors
From India's point of view - yes, it is, very much so. It's hard to imagine, but from their point of view, the war in Ukraine is a largely inconsequential regional conflict in a far away place, caused as much by Western intransigence as by Russian obstinacy for all they care. They simply don't give enough of a fuck about the real depth of this issue to compromise their own wellbeing, a certain portion of which depends on at least a cooperative relationship with Russia. Modi publicly admonishing Putin that '
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> In terms of pollution they're still behind the US in
> absolute terms
By what metrics are their pollution levels behind the US? Honest question, not trying to be argumentative... but have you actually been there and looked at the sky? Or... rather... have you looked at the miasma of smog that's where the sky is supposed to be? It looks like those pictures of LA from the '70s. Hell... it looks worse! I know that's just an anecdote, I wasn't even alive to see LA at peak smog, and all I've seen are
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By what metrics are their pollution levels behind the US?
Absolute CO2 emissions is what I meant. And on that metric, India is still way behind the US (roughly half), despite their population being a multiple of the US. I agree that that is not strictly 'pollution' in a local smog sense and on the metric of air quality in large cities, India performs drastically worse than the US.
No. Indeed, India has long and strong ties to Russia, having aligned themselves with them during the Cold War. It was a very strange alliance,
India would strongly object to being accused of having 'aligned with Russia' during the Cold War. It's not a fair assessment either. In fact, India was a founding member of the Non-Aligne
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I've had it with religious and cultural censorship and government overreach. There's no room for politeness anymore. Fuck them, fuck the people who think...
Unfortunately, these days courtesy and politeness have become rather unfashionable. People feel the need to pepper their writings with expletives which they would not use in a face to face conversation, or worse still perhaps they might. So, whlie I agree with your stance on censorship, I suspect that your way of expressing it reveals a lack of diplomacy and empathy, rather than a biting sense of irony.
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The internet used to be way wilder. If anything it’s calmer than it used to be.
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So? Protest by eating a steak.
Theatres and television (Score:3)
Are these the same rules already imposed upon traditional television and movies shown in theatres?
Sexy Temples (Score:3, Insightful)
What's next, they gonna go deface the temples with stone carvings of people fucking on them?
Re:Sexy Temples (Score:4, Interesting)
That actually raises an interesting question for me. I suppose I don't really know enough about Hinduism. India today seems to very much be going in a Hindu nationalist direction with some puritanical and, sometimes, misogynistic overtones including all kinds of ideas about female requirements for modesty, etc. I am curious how much of that comes from the actual religion and how much is cultural artifact running in parallel with the religion. The example of open sexual themes in old art illustrates this question quite well. It seems like a modern artist in India would have a lot of trouble putting similar works on public display without the danger of arrest. Anyone have any insights into Hinduism/Indian culture to share?
Re: Sexy Temples (Score:5, Informative)
What ever happened to the Kama Sutra anyway?
Oh yeah. The British and Christianity. Isn't it about time India and the Hindu ruling majority take a hard look at how much of their society is sill under the control of their long absent colonizers?
Hindu nationalism, my ass. They are still kow towing to Queen Victoria.
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It's a good question. My guess it is like Christianity, Islam and such, different branches of the religion including some that are very puritanical all reading into their holy scriptures what they want to believe rather then what is written. I'm most familiar with Christianity, and there sure are a lot of branches that don't follow the teachings of Christ, you know, love everyone, turn the other cheek and the poor being blessed, etc. People being people, it is likely similar with various Hindu branches.
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1. I do not believe India is going the Hindu nationalist direction. Hindu's are just beginning to react and push back against the constant pressure they face, in their own country and despite being a majority in that country.
As a tiny example, Islamists and Christians, both conduct forced conversions in India regularly, even today (google it; you can read opindia.com). People are beginning to push back. Naturally, this will get the attention of the media, much of which is biased against Hindu's (colonial
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I do not believe India is going the Hindu nationalist direction.
My understanding was that the ruling party was quite openly Hindu nationalist.
From a religion perspective, India can never have misogynistic overtones. In Hinduism the male and female (energy) are worshipped equally. The worlds oldest books, the Veda's (and the basis for India's scriptures) had at least 26 female contributors, in addition to male contributors. If anything, the female is a step above.
See, that's the impression I get from India historically, but I just don't get the overall impression that's the case today.
NOTE: It is important to appreciate that the India you see today has had its culture changed due to these 500 + 200 years of rule. Many bad practices crept in. And also many bad practices were forced onto the population. e.g. people talk about the caste system. Well, it will surprise most Westerners that India originally did not have a caste system. There is no word for "Caste" in Indian languages. Caste comes from Casta, a Portuguese word. Caste was foisted on and enforced within India by Lord Macaulay (google it; but no Wikipedia please; it is another biased against Hindu/India publication). Culture also changes because some of the conquerors mistreated women and children. So, the culture evolved to protect women. Over time this can result in bad practices, of which there are many, in addition to wonderful practices.
Now that's the kind of thing I was wondering about. Altered cultural attitudes that are carried in parallel to religious conservatism, but not really derived from the religion itself.
Hinduism is enormously diverse, broad and deep. If anything, it is not a religion in the way that that word is used for other religions (where you have a single book, you have to follow that book, where there was 1 historic event that took place 2000 or 1400 years ago, and everything is tied to that event). Very briefly, there are at least 8 or 9 very different and diverse ways of explaining God / why we are on Earth etc. In other ways 8 or 9 different philosophical systems, each of which would take a lifetime to fully understand and each of these have sub-schools. These run the gamut from denying the existence of God and claiming that all you see is all there is (materialistic) to having many gods or just 1 god. The names of the schools are Jain (Jainism), Bodh (Buddhism), Charvaka, Nyaya, Vaisesikha, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa, Vedanta. Each school has had many lofty thinkers who deeply analyzed creation, reasons behind it etc. and wrote their treatises. Through the ages these schools have verbally battled with each other, each trying to find logical fallacies and errors in the other. But none of this ever resulted in wars or killing each other.
This is interesting. In some ways this is a good thing because it theoretically encourages religious freedom and multiple life
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Funny thing. Back in college we had Cal Thomas and (I just lost the guy's name. It's Al and he's in the adult industry) doing some kind of discussion/debate about pornography. During the Q&A, I raised the question, prompted by Cal's insistence that government should do more to clamp down on pornography, about covering up naked statues or paintings from some of the masters showing naked people, mainly wome
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Replying to myself, it was Al Goldstein.
I Love Cows (Score:2)
Nothing tastes as good as a good ol cow. Too bad they are relatives to the Indian peoples.
More importantly (Score:2)
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It indeed can be fun to mess with telemarketers. You lead them on making it sound like you are ALMOST ready by to buy, getting them to wheel and deal, and then wait until they make a minor slip and say something slightly silly or rude, and then use that as a justification for abandoning the deal.
Sometimes I feel guilty because many are low-paid grunts just trying to make a living.
There's a very simple solution (Score:5, Insightful)
If you have a problem with obscene, lewd, rude or other content that you can't stomach, there is a very, very easy solution for it: Don't watch it.
Nothing is easier than to avoid offensive content. Change the channel. Or, in case of streaming, it's even easier, don't watch the stream. You can't even accidentally see it, how cool is that!
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Nothing is easier than to avoid offensive content. Change the channel.
Problem with that - is people already paid to access that service to meet their entertainment needs. With your "Just don't watch" solution, that means (1) They've already been offended/harmed, Because they had to watch part of it to detect that the program has offensive content. (2) They paid expecting to get something, but they can't get it, And (3) Their entertainment need is not being met; they basically had to pay a service
Re:There's a very simple solution (Score:5, Interesting)
I see your argument and I consider it valid, but there are absolutely perfect solutions to this:
1) Require content creators to conform to a labeling standard. Define "offensive" categories (swearing, nudity, pornography, sexism, ageism, abelism, racism, you know the drill) and require content creators to label their stuff correctly, with the unspoken implication that if they can't get their act together, you will (trust me, they will!).
2) and 3) vanish along with the solution to 1) because not only do the people who signed up for that kind of content still have access to it, they can now even look for it more easily.
So if 1) is your concern, here's your solution.
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Require content creators to conform to a labeling standard. Define "offensive" categories
Trouble with (1) is.. First of all, the consumer has no way to see how much content will be labelled before signing up for a streaming service with certain expectations.. It's actually more convenient to the consumer to not have to worry about items turning out to be labelled offensive at all -- No label to even have to check is a better experience for those who don't want to watch anything extreme. Tacking labels
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Well, it could even be required that the customer gets to see the ratio of labels before signing the contract. Could allow him to choose the one that suits his kinks, I mean, preferences best. But in the end, since the content would still be available, just tagged properly, what exactly would be the difference to the status quo?
In the end, people will learn to do with the labels what we already do with the rating system: Ignore it. And everyone is happy again. The censors got the feeling they did something
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Sorry I'm going to have to snark at this.
"Yeah, if only they invented some sort of system where it told you what the show was about..like uh..let's call it a synopsis...then maybe without even reading that, let's put some sort of content control system on it, maybe a rating system, so you can determine if the potential content in it you might find offensive and choose to not watch it"
It's about control, it always has been, always will be.
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Oh please. Everything comes with a plethora, usually unskippable, parental advisories and trigger warnings these days. Everything from violence to strong language to a boob shot to smoking to drug use to "outdated cultural depictions" (For movies/shows that were made in the '60s or earlier... fucking DUH!), it put out upfront before the show plays. It's not even limited to entertainment anymore. Those warning have crept into news articles now. Some of them even censor words like rape and murder (writin
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Republicans used to say that. Now they empty school libraries so books can be approved for correct content and edited so white people don’t feel uncomfortable.
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2... [wbur.org]
https://thehill.com/homenews/s... [thehill.com]
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/l... [nbcnews.com]
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Face it, America has today two parties that want to control what you can say or do. One in the name of diversity, one in the name of their imaginary friend.
Is it really impossible to get any normal people elected anymore?
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One party is banning books, the other is not.
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One party is banning books, the other is not.
Are they banning those 'grooming' books?
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You mean the one about the penguin with two dads?
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You mean the one about the penguin with two dads?
nah... ones about how its ok to take nude selfies as long as you don't show your face and make sure you cover up any scars or birthmarks. Or the one about the 7yo girl who got raped by her dad but its ok. Or the one about how kids need to learn how to suck d..k. Or the one about how its ok to have secrets with adults and not tell your parents. I've been hearing a lot about them.
Apparently the school libraries are exempt from obscene publications laws and they've started stocking things which you'd probably
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See the problem is you’re “hearing” about these books instead of reading them yourself and making a decision. I know a book with more filth and violence than anything. The bible.
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That's the one with that chick who's into horse dicks, right?
Trivial (Score:2)
This should be trivial to enforce, with a population of only 1.4 Billion.
This is good! If want abusive/obscene content (Score:2)
Just go outside anywhere in India to watch people shitting in the streets and gang raping women
Really ? (Score:2)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/... [flickr.com]