It seems increasingly clear that limitations on net freedoms by various states disadvantages their populations by encumbering their access to information, making them less competitive as a labor force in a knowledge-based global market. Furthermore, with the huge numbers of young people under the age of 25 and the bourgeoning of cheap access to internet and mobile services, the tech wave is inevitably infiltrating borders from Afghanistan to Bhutan.
Nations can adopt one of two policies. The first sees this tech wave as a destructive foreign force that, if left unfettered, could break down the religious, cultural, and social constructs from which the current ruling class derives their power. This policy perspective would censor websites en mass, with insubstantial justifications of preserving religious/moral order, “fighting the terrorists” or silencing “treacherous” political dissidents.
The alternative perspective would recognize the need to modernize traditionally protected rights like free press, expression, speech, and privacy to apply to internet freedom. They would recognize the need to encourage maximum access for their citizens to harness the power of the internet to create political, financial, and technological developments in their home-states. That is not to say that these policy-makers would be expected to bind their hands when it comes to investigating the electronic communications of terrorist or criminal groups.
There is certainly a balance that must be drawn between security and internet freedom, but this can only be achieved if South Asian states begin recognizing and valuing net freedom as essential to all other democratic freedoms guaranteed under constitutions and international law.
[1] http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/pak-most-watched-country-on-nsa-2013-surveillance-list-113112000498_1.html
[2] http://rt.com/news/nsa-india-surveillance-snowden-report-305/
[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22030388
[4] http://minivannews.com/politics/blog-crack-down-is-just-the-beginning-warns-censored-blogger-28433
[5] http://minivannews.com/politics/prison-conditions-unchanged-since-gayooms-time-detained-blogger-30646
[6] http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/government/IN/
[7] http://cpj.org/internet/2010/10/using-new-internet-filters-afghanistan-blocks-news.php
[8] http://www.thecolombotimes.com/component/content/article/6625-sri-lanka-court-blocks-porn-websites
[9] http://news.yahoo.com/sri-lanka-blocks-5-news-websites-over-insults-094158881.html
[10] http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2013/pakistan
[11] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3911373.stm
[12] http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/02/05/one-joke-too-many-bhutanomics-satire-blog-is-suddenly-blocked/
[13] http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pakistan-creates-its-own-patriot-act-to-deal-with-terrorists-human-rights-groups-worried/2013/11/08/67ed58ca-4071-11e3-a751-f032898f2dbc_story.html
[14] http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1030/p07s02-wosc.html
[15] Id.
[16] http://dawn.com/news/1048089/pakistans-bans-burning-the-barn-to-slaughter-the-goat - Read article on Pakistan by the lawyer involved in this litigation.
[17] http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/09/26/article_17_surveillance_update_countries_want_digital_privacy_in_the_iccpr.html
[18] http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/2631/en/#sthash.CBtoWbgX.dpuf
Conclusion
Sources