Save Your Voice is a movement against internet censorship in India. It was founded by cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, journalist Alok Dixit, socialist Arpit Gupta and Chirag Joshi in January 2012. The movement was initially named "Raise Your Voice", before it was renamed. The movement started from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, under the frontier-ship of the movement's four founders; with a "Langda March" at Ujjain. The movement opposes the Information Technology Act of India and demands democratic rules for the governance of Internet. The campaign is targeted at the rules framed under the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Langda March or Disability Parade
The "Langda March" was an eye-catching protest against internet censorship. Protestors "disabled themselves" by bandaging their hands and feet, appearing handicapped. The crowd of "handicaps" marched across the roads in Ujjain, Meerut, Bangalore and Chennai.
Sibal's Day Campaign
Save Your Voice celebrated April Fool's Day with Kapil Sibal, the IT Minister of India and named it as "Sibal's Day". This was a direct attack on the minister who had advocated pre-censorship for the content on the social media. Save Your Voice staged demonstrations at prominent locations like the Indian Parliament, India Gate, Jantar Mantar and the IT ministry of India with dummies of Kapil Sibal, who received postcards, messages and even garlands from passersby and supporters. The goal of this campaign was to rally public support in defense of free speech on the Internet.
Freedom in the Cage
Freedom in the cage was a creative protest by Save Your Voice which got a huge public attention in New Delhi with demonstrators symbolically locked in cages to help raise awareness about the problem of web censorship in India. Artists, Journalists and bloggers had caged themselves to give the message to the government that artistes inside a cage playing the guitar or painting a canvas was equal to the government's IT rules that have "caged" the freedom of the people granted by the Constitution of India. The motive behind the protest was to explain that the newly notified Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules-2011 prescribing principles to be observed by the Internet companies was unconstitutional as it provided for a system of censorship by private parties, adversely affected the right of privacy, would hamper the growth of the Internet and slow down economic growth in the process and limit the growth of IT-related services and industries in particular.
Freedom Fast
Save Your Voice supported the annulment motion brought by the MP P Rajeev and to put pressure on the government, two of the movement's campaigners, the cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and journalist Alok Dixit started a hunger strike. People from various streams and in favour of this cause have visited the campaigning activists at Jantar Mantar, and helped to keep their motive intact. Arvind Gaur, Director of Asmita Theatre (New Delhi) also joined them with his associates and assured that he would extend his support for the fight for 'Freedom of Speech & Expression' in a full-fledged manner. The seven day long hunger strike was ended when both were forced to end a hunger strike they began on 2 May. Their health had deteriorated considerably and they were hospitalised. The annulment motion in the Rajya Sabha could not be passed and India joined the league of dictator nations where internet is not free. However, the hunger strike successfully highlighted the issue in the global media.
Occupy India
The protest has resulted in access being denied to a host of websites that carry illegal copies of films and songs among other legal content, including isohunt.com and pastebin.com. The website of one of the Save Your Voice members, Trivedi, was also blocked by BigRock and against which the members protested and campaigned throughout India. "The government is bringing censorship through the back door and we will oppose it," says Alok in one of his interviews with The Asian Age. To register their protest, campaigners have also hacked the website of state-run telecom provider MTNL and pasted the logo of the Anonymous group, the mask of 17th century British revolutionary Guy Fawkes, on mtnl.net.in. MTNL's corporate website could not be accessed for over four hours, following the attack, but its individual city-specific websites (for Delhi and Mumbai) remained unaffected.