VOA慢速英语:India Defends Moves Against Social Media

The government in India is defending itself against charges of Internet censorship. The move comes after the government last week asked companies like Facebook and Twitter to block more than three hundred websites.
印度政府就外界指控其互联网审查进行自我辩护。就在上周，印度政府要求诸如Facebook和Twitter这样的公司屏蔽300多家网站。

Officials accused the websites of posting edited images and videos of earthquake victims. They said the websites falsely claimed that the images were Muslim victims caught in recent ethnic conflict in India’s northeastern Assam state and Burma. A number of the images were reportedly uploaded from Pakistan.
官员们指责这些网站发布编辑过的地震受害者图片和视频，他们称网站错误地称这些图片是印度东北部阿萨姆邦和缅甸最近种族冲突中被抓的穆斯林受害者。据说许多图片都是从巴基斯坦上传的。

Officials said the panic that resulted caused thousands of Hindu immigrants to flee the area. They feared that Muslims would answer the false reports with attacks of their own.
官员们称由此导致的恐慌使得数千印度移民逃离此地，他们担心穆斯林会以袭击来回应这些错误的报道。

Cyber law expert, lawyer Pawan Duggal says this is the first time the Internet and mobile-phone technology have been used to create fear in a community.
网络法律专家律师Pawan Duggal说，用互联网和手机技术来制造社会恐慌，这还是第一次。

PAWAN DUGGAL: “India has to wake up to the need for putting cyber security as the number-one priority for the nation. Unfortunately, India does not even have a national cyber-security policy. The nation does not have any plan of action, should this kind of emergency happen again. India needs to have its own cyber army of cyber warriors.”
Pawan Duggal：“印度现在明白要把网络安全作为该国的头等大事。不幸的是，印度甚至还没有全国性的网络安全政策。如果这类紧急事件发生，印度还没有任何行动方案。”

On Friday, India’s Communication and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal dismissed charges that the government is trying to censor social media. But he said the misuse of social media has to be prevented. 
周五，印度通信与信息技术部部长Kapil Sibal对所谓政府试图审查社交媒体的说法表示否定。不过他说，必须预防对社交媒体的滥用。

Pranesh Prakash is program manager at the Bangalore-based Center for Internet and Society. He says some of the Web pages that have been blocked included official news websites.
Pranesh Prakash是总部在班加罗尔的互联网和社会中心的项目经理，他说一些被屏蔽的网页还包括政府新闻网站。

PRANESH PRAKASH: “I am not questioning the motivations of the government which in this current case seemed to be above board. We found that most of the material that they have complained about is actually stuff that is communal. But I do feel that the government went overboard in doing so, that it has also curbed legitimate reportage.”
Pranesh Prakash：“我不是在质疑政府的动机，在目前的情况下是光明正大的。我们发现，他们所抱怨的实际上是种族间的事情。但我觉得，政府在操作过程中有点过头，这也限制了合法的新闻报道。”

He says some of the websites were uploaded by people trying to let others know that the images were false.
他说，一些人在网站上传是为了让人知道这些编辑过的图片是假的。

The government in India has called on social media companies to come up with a plan to keep offensive material off the Web. Last year, it passed a law that requires companies to remove so-called “objectionable content” when requested to do so.
印度政府要求社交媒体公司提交一份阻止攻击性资料方案。去年，印度通过法律，要求这些收到通知后公司移去所谓的“不良内容。”

A Google Transparency report says that last year India topped the list of countries that make such requests. Supporters of online freedom have expressed concern that India may be restricting Web freedom.
谷歌的一份透明度调查显示，印度是去年做出此类要求最多的国家。网络自由支持者对印度可能限制互联网自由表示担忧。

About one hundred million people in India use the Internet -- the third-largest number of net users in the world. About seven hundred million people have mobile phones.
印度约有1亿人使用网络，网络用户数量占全世界第三位。