A Year Full Of Controversies & Protests

A couple of Indian Ministers were drawn into controversy because of their statements. India's Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, angered the gay community and gay rights activists with his comments at a HIV/AIDS conference in New Delhi. Netizens condemned his take on homosexuality as “unnatural” and a “disease” that had come from the West. In December the Indian Union Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal asked Internet giants just as Facebook, Google and Yahoo to pre-screen derogatory, defamatory and inflammatory content about political leaders and religion and filter if objectionable. His words got a huge backlash from the netizens.

In November, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority become the center of controversy when it sent a list of 586 Urdu and 1,109 English banned words and phrases to the mobile phone operators in the country to filter them.

The protests were unprecedented

In this region some of the protests were unprecedented and unequalled. In several South Asian countries Dowry is prohibited by law nevertheless is for all that widely and illegally practiced. A protest against dowry was much discusses and lauded in the social networks in Bangladesh. Farzana Yasmin sent ripples across the country by divorcing the bridegroom right afterwards the wedding as her in-laws demanded a TV set, refrigerator, motorbike and a few more things as 'gifts' from the bride's family in presence of the guests.

Nepali Internet users were caught in disarray as the Internet Service Provider's Association of Nepal shut down its internet service as a mark of protest against the government's crackdown on ‘illegal VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) call bypass'.

“Social Media has been constantly following and commenting on the political happenings in Pakistan and is slowly building a strong grip on the electronic media within the country,” comments Fouad Bajwa at Internet's Governance blog.