[Read: How much does it cost to buy, own, and run an EV? It\u2019s not as much as you think<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n As reported by the Wire<\/a>, Jammu & Kashmir police already released a statement asking people to register as volunteers on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal:<\/p>\n Under this initiative, any Indian citizen can get himself\/herself associated by registering in any of three categories of Cyber Volunteer. Cyber Volunteer Unlawful Content Flagger- for identifying online illegal\/unlawful content like child pornography, rape\/gang rape, terrorism, radicalization, anti national activities etc. and reporting to government.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The publication noted that while people signing up might have to upload a valid government ID, there won\u2019t be any verification process to vet them. <\/span><\/p>\n While reporting rape threats, terrorist and child exploitative content will make the internet a safer place, anti-national activities can be often subjective if not defined clearly. This could end up giving the power to restrict free speech to these volunteers. <\/span><\/p>\n Recently, based on the government\u2019s order Twitter blocked several accounts and tweets<\/a> posting about farmer\u2019s protests in India. Earlier this month, the police force of the northern state of Uttarakhand said that it will scan social media posts for anti-national content<\/a> before approving applications for a passport. <\/span><\/p>\n If there\u2019s no defined process to hire these volunteers, the program could promote censorship and snooping. The last thing India needs right now is to adopt practices from China\u2019s internet restrictions.<\/p>\n A paper published by t<\/a>he Centre for Internet and Society<\/a>, a nonprofit researching on internet policies, noted that such initiatives could lead to intrusion and threaten the safety of people who are expressing dissent against the authorities. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
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