Ankit Fadia launches book, comments on social networks

Ankit Fadia, famed Indian hacker, launched a book yesterday in New Delhi where he commented on the social networks and censorship. He said that while it's impossible to control all content that users put up on the Internet and social networking websites, companies like Facebook and Twitter screen content after they are posted. He said that the social networks need to be more responsive with their post-screening of content. He said that Twitter and Facebook should be more responsible and responsive when governments get in touch with them to remove objectionable content that is illegal or hurts the sentiments of regions and religions.

On censorship and Internet blocking

He said that if a video on YouTube or a picture on Facebook contains pornographic content, users can report the offensive content and the company (either Google or Facebook) will take the content down. Fadia says there is no technology that can look at content on a social network before it is posted and decide if it is illegal (there is the obvious exception where Facebook pre-screens uploaded videos for copyrighted content, however, that is a seperate matter).

The name of Fadia's book is, "How to Unblock Everything on the Internet". The book promises to provide students with simple solutions to unblock their university networks, even if the student is not tech-savvy. Fadia says that the book does not prompt its readers and followers to do anything illegal. He says that he strongly opposes closed Internet and blocking of social networks, especially on IIT campuses. He says on some campuses Facebook is open, but Twitter is blocked. Fadia believes that without social networking access, students find other ways to "waste their time". There needs to be better communication between administrator and user.

He also expects university tech departments and the government to be the first buyers of his book, so they can figure out how to secure their systems above and beyond what the book teaches Internet unblockers.