Reuters has taken down -- globally -- an important hacking-for-profit investigation that included details about an Indian hacking entrepreneur -- because he got a court in that country to say so.
This is a huge danger to free speech and serious journalism.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/who-is-killing-all-these-stories-about-rajat-khare-controversial-tech-mogul
Reuters deserved praise for its initial investigation. It deserves the opposite now.
(The New Yorker is apparently one of the few publications that hasn't bowed to the pressure.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-crime/a-confession-exposes-indias-secret-hacking-industry
just a minor clarification. the court did not order the article to he taken down. the court just said that the article constitutes defamation.
it was Reuter’s decision to therefore take down the article. in OP’s first link, there’s info of other media houses that have also pulled such stories.
blame the scummy lawyers protecting the scumbag and his predatory behaviour.
What’s the difference between the court saying it’s defamation, and thus illegal to publish and worthy of awarding damages, and ordering it taken down? Seems like splitting hairs.
Reuters had a choice to reword the article (like some other media houses in OP’s link have done) or retract the article. they have chosen to do the latter.
the core difference is that choice. had the court deemed that the article should have been taken down, Reuters wouldn’t have even had that choice.
getting mad at the court in this case is akin to getting mad at the car that a drunk driver drove into a house. sure, it has been the proximal instrument of destruction, but it wasn’t the one who veered off the road.
I think people mad at Reuters don’t realize that they’re intentionally invoking the Streisand Effect in this case. Otherwise, today, I wouldn’t have heard anything about:
confirmed scammer Rajat Khare covering up his scammy ways
I assume, stuck between a rock and a hard place, they decided that compromising with censorship was not an option, while probably hoping that the headline “Reuters removes article” would have somewhat of a striesand effect. If that was the case it seems to have worked as we’re here talking about it.
I’d be willing to bet it has less to do with the article not being available in India and that it is available at all. Let’s be honest, geoblocking is a joke, especially for a news outlet. Therefore, if Reuters wants to do business in India, one of the world’s largest markets, they have to take it down everywhere. Now, if I ran a news service that wrote an article they didn’t like and since I’m not doing business in India, I would have the power to tell them to go pound sand. Assuming they didn’t decide to go the route of burying me in legal fees here in America by hiring American lawyers to do so, that is.
Gosh, it sure would be a shame if this article about confirmed scammer Rajat Khare covering up his scammy ways were shared repeatedly all over the internet. 🤷
Reuters has temporarily removed the article “How an Indian startup hacked the world” to comply with a preliminary court order issued on Dec. 4, 2023, in a district court in New Delhi, India.
Reuters stands by its reporting and plans to appeal the decision.
The article, published Nov. 16, 2023, was based on interviews with hundreds of people, thousands of documents, and research from several cybersecurity firms.
The order was issued amid a pending lawsuit brought against Reuters in November 2022. As set forth in its court filings, Reuters disputes those claims.
This isn’t about appealing though. This is about jurisdiction. An Indian Court has no jurisdiction outside of India, and for that court to suggest otherwise is a significant overreach.
So while they should absolutely appeal this up the wazoo, in every other country, the correct answer is to ignore it. And they should tell the Indian court that they will follow Indian law and Indian judgments inside of India but their operations in other nations are not subject to Indian law any more than their operations in India are subject to American law.
My gut says that this is probably not appeasement but a subtle rebellious act. They could have edited the article or geoblocked it just in India, but instead they removed it altogether, adding to the story and ultimatley bringing even more attention to it.
Get mad at the court that forced them to take the story down not at Reuters.
just a minor clarification. the court did not order the article to he taken down. the court just said that the article constitutes defamation.
it was Reuter’s decision to therefore take down the article. in OP’s first link, there’s info of other media houses that have also pulled such stories.
blame the scummy lawyers protecting the scumbag and his predatory behaviour.
What’s the difference between the court saying it’s defamation, and thus illegal to publish and worthy of awarding damages, and ordering it taken down? Seems like splitting hairs.
Reuters had a choice to reword the article (like some other media houses in OP’s link have done) or retract the article. they have chosen to do the latter.
the core difference is that choice. had the court deemed that the article should have been taken down, Reuters wouldn’t have even had that choice.
getting mad at the court in this case is akin to getting mad at the car that a drunk driver drove into a house. sure, it has been the proximal instrument of destruction, but it wasn’t the one who veered off the road.
blame the leeching lawyers here.
I think people mad at Reuters don’t realize that they’re intentionally invoking the Streisand Effect in this case. Otherwise, today, I wouldn’t have heard anything about:
Reuters could have geoblocked the article.
I assume, stuck between a rock and a hard place, they decided that compromising with censorship was not an option, while probably hoping that the headline “Reuters removes article” would have somewhat of a striesand effect. If that was the case it seems to have worked as we’re here talking about it.
Maybe, I guess it depends on the feasibility of doing that quickly. If they need to do a lot of setup for it then there might not be time
I’d be willing to bet it has less to do with the article not being available in India and that it is available at all. Let’s be honest, geoblocking is a joke, especially for a news outlet. Therefore, if Reuters wants to do business in India, one of the world’s largest markets, they have to take it down everywhere. Now, if I ran a news service that wrote an article they didn’t like and since I’m not doing business in India, I would have the power to tell them to go pound sand. Assuming they didn’t decide to go the route of burying me in legal fees here in America by hiring American lawyers to do so, that is.
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I was thinking the same thing, but then I saw “globally”. They probably could have just taken it down in India, right?
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Does Reuters actually operate in India? What’s stopping them just ignoring a blatantly immoral ruling?
They operate pretty literally everywhere.
But yeah, appeasing the totalitarian demands of the fascist Modi government and its pet courts is not the way to go.
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Yes, they do.
Gosh, it sure would be a shame if this article about confirmed scammer Rajat Khare covering up his scammy ways were shared repeatedly all over the internet. 🤷
This isn’t about appealing though. This is about jurisdiction. An Indian Court has no jurisdiction outside of India, and for that court to suggest otherwise is a significant overreach. So while they should absolutely appeal this up the wazoo, in every other country, the correct answer is to ignore it. And they should tell the Indian court that they will follow Indian law and Indian judgments inside of India but their operations in other nations are not subject to Indian law any more than their operations in India are subject to American law.
stop bowing down to fascism everybody
My gut says that this is probably not appeasement but a subtle rebellious act. They could have edited the article or geoblocked it just in India, but instead they removed it altogether, adding to the story and ultimatley bringing even more attention to it.
I’d like to believe this is canny use of the Streisand Effect, but in a company as big as Reuters it’s more likely to be lawyers.
Is there an archive link of the article?
https://web.archive.org/web/20231116164611/https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-hackers-appin/
Alright scambaiters go to work
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