UNDERSTANDING THE BLOGOSPHERE

Blogosphere: Public or Private?

When it comes to facebook accounts, privacy settings determine whether information on that account is public or private. It is a controlled private space but a blog is not in most cases, says Anis Pervez, a sociologist specialising in information science. He explains: “Blogs are public expositions of private content as soon as they become accessible. Also blogging alone on a computer screen behind locked doors does not necessarily mean blogging is 'private' when the sole intention of the activity is to share the information publicly, often through social networks.”

Blogging, online chatting and wiki have evolved into Internet Forums, which provided like-minded people with an opportunity to form virtual communities for discussion.

Pervez underlines that a blog is just another medium of communication like TV, radio and newspaper. The only difference is that it is using the internet as a channel but ultimately the audience for whom it is exposed to are the public. A heterogeneous group, from different places and on different times, can access blogs just like TV, radio and any other media.

A newspaper publisher or the owner of a TV channel or a radio programmer cannot whimsically share any information because they are liable to certain rules and regulations. Accordingly, individual publishers of the blogs, as part of the mass media, should be liable for the information they publish. The situation is comparable to a newspaper publisher who is accountable and liable for publishing materials despite having freedom of the press.

Social networking offers interconnectivity by hyperlinking texts, merging contexts and cross-sharing contents on different internet platforms.

In reality, the case is not that simple. First of all, bloggers can remain anonymous on the internet unless traced by intelligence units. Secondly, regulating the internet or blogosphere is an immense task; it is virtually uncontrollable because new blogs sprout up as soon as access to one is restricted. Thirdly, restricting access is subject to the laws of the particular country.

Pervez recalls an example, “In some countries where the public are undeterred by controversial contents on the internet, the laws do not necessaryly enforce restriction. On the contrary, if public sentiments are hurt by such content, the law steps in to regulate the media. Such a case was the availability of a film on youtube defaming the prophet [pbuh] of Islam. Youtube did not deem it 'morally offending' and hence did not take the film down. But considering public sentiments in Bangladesh, the government had restricted access to the site.”

Most blogs are nothing but harmless musings in the cyberspace.

Pervez also reminds us of some structural issues as a blog or a website created and registered in one country can be accessed from another country. “While it is true that the bloggers must be ethically responsible for publishing content, the definition of ethics remains flexible considering time, place and it is often subject to legal jurisdiction. Also, for publishing controversial content, certain individuals under certain geographical boundaries may be traced and subjected to law within that country only,” he observes.

Freedom of Expression: What the Law says
Like other countries in the world, freedom of expression is a limited right in Bangladesh, says Asif Nazrul, professor of Law at Dhaka University.

He clarifies in which instances it can be curbed by the law, “Freedom of expression and freedom of the press have been defined under article 39 in our constitution. The definitions clearly spell out that freedom of expression is not an absolute right. The article provides that reasonable restriction could be imposed on the exercise of this right on grounds like security of the state, public order, decency and morality, defamation, incitement to an offence and contempt of court. Accordingly this right is subject to our criminal laws and laws relating to contempt of court etc.”

Professor Nazrul exemplifies, “The penal code contains an individual chapter on religious offence. It says that if a follower of any religion is offended by someone's speech, work, cartoons or any form of expression and if it's demeaning towards the followers of a particular religion, then it is a punishable crime. So the law regarding religious offence in our penal code is also a valid restriction on freedom of expression.”

However, the legal definitions of freedom of expression and derogatory remarks become subject to argument given that the nature of the internet, blogging and the blurry boundary between public and private. One may wonder how these legal jurisdictions are related to blogs whereas many find the definition of blogs arguable as to whether it is public or private.

Forum posts must respect certain rules and regulations, usually monitored by a moderator.

Professor Nazrul clarifies the ambiguity regarding expression, “One may question whether writing in a blog is an 'expression' because it is often deemed a private note. But in the eyes of law, it may not be. One writes in a blog with the intention of sharing it. Let's assume someone does not have an intention of sharing it. But it can still be shared because it has been made public the moment it is has been published on a public domain. If someone did not want to share it, s/he would have kept a diary. But if these materials belonging to a certain individual are shared with a second person, it is an 'expression'. And these are often put up on public domains accessible on the internet.”

He adds, “And now these materials are shared via all social networking sites including facebook by other individuals, it goes public and shared beyond the control of the owner. If someone feels that his/her religious sentiments are hurt by the shared or obtained materials then it is a 'religious offence'. Freedom of expression is not as simple and as unlimited as it may seem to some people.”

IT Act: Legal provisions

The existing legal provisions and measures are not adequate to address blogging and regulating the online media, says Supreme Court Lawyer Barrister ABM Hamidul Mishbah, also founder of Bangladesh Copyright and Industrial Property (IP) Forum.

He explains, “We are yet to have a specific law to regulate establishing, running and managing online media in Bangladesh, except for some scattered provisions embedded in the Bangladesh Telecommunication Act 2001, the IT Act 2006 and the evergreen Penal Code of Bangladesh. The Penal Code applies to almost anything.”

Any content can go viral on facebook and become 'public' beyond the publishers' control, despite being in a 'private' space.

The barrister notes how the legal provisions including the IT Act address blogging, “Section 57 of the IT Act laid out provisions for punishment for publishing, in an electronic form (blogging, social networking, etc.), defamatory information or information which is not true or defamatory in nature, which may offend one's national or religious belief. The maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment and a fine not exceeding one crore taka. Besides, the Penal Code of 1860 provides that if any media work or freedom of expression, in any form, written, spoken or otherwise, outrages religious feelings of any class of citizens shall be termed as an offence.”

“Time has come to introduce specific policy or law or guidelines,” he advises.

Controversial blogs and forums may offend certain sentiments, particularly if shared over the social network. Those may become subject to judicial intervention.

But it does not end here. Barrister Mishbah reminds us that in every democratic society it is a legitimate expectation that the citizens and media will express their opinions freely. “Technological proliferation has extended that horizon of expression and we now can express our views through blogs, social networking sites (i.e. facebook, twitter) and online media. But it also implies that we, the educated and tech-savvy class who access the internet, are now 'publishers' at our own capacity. It demands us to be more cautious and respectful to the sentiments of others who have access to such information, especially the public.”

However, given the nature of online media, it is difficult to have everyone behaving soberly in the cyberspace, he says, “An appropriate legal or regulatory framework may be an ideal way to monitor and filter the contents. However, regulating expressions shared in the cyberspace may turn out to be an immense task and attract criticisms from various perspectives.”

Yet more concerns
An intelligence-personnel, on condition of anonymity, tells us, “Although Bangladesh is a 'developing country', it has an almost state-of-art technological infrastructure to deal with cybercrime.” Nabbing of frauds hacking into online bank accounts in the past is an example, he says. The law under certain circumstances can trace a blogger, usually anonymous, within certain geographical boundaries for publishing 'derogatory contents' or life-threatening comments.

But he mentions that given the nature of blogging and cyberspace, individuals can be framed and implicated for publishing 'derogatory' contents which may put legal actions into dispute, despite having clear legal definitions of the crimes.

This blogger allegedly shared a controversial post on google+. The individual may be traced by intelligence units in certain countries. Framed or genuine, this may be a threat to both the individual and the 'social space' on social networks.

Just as the fact that blogs are publicly exposed, it is also true that those remain unknown until shared and circulated. Also, it is noteworthy that there are literally billions of such blogs in existence that are 'derogatory' to certain sentiments and propagating 'defamatory' contents over the internet. It may be difficult to determine which of those are falsely attributed to someone.

Crimes such as setting up fake blogs, posting malicious and life-threatening comments, spreading rumours, posting doctored images are rampant and need to be punishable under the law. However, the aforementioned cybercrimes can be falsely attributed to anyone using his/her photos and personal information available over the internet. The importance of privacy on the internet thus becomes paramount.

On query, Information Commissioner Sadeka Halim observes that our ICT policy is not fully operationalized to address and tackle these issues. “There may be many types of cybercrimes but the policies are yet to be developed to figure out what type of cybercrime could be a threat to the society. And this requires experts from all quarters including sociological, technological, legal even theological and rights activists to figure out the most appropriate and applicable way to deal with this,” she says.