Alok Dixit

Alok Dixit is a journalist turned social activist, fighting for the freedom of internet in India. He is the founder member of 'Save Your Voice’, a movement against internet censorship in India.

His works includes campaigning against the censorship on the online media and to help acid survivors to live a life free of violence. With his demand of free and open internet, Alok is creating a nationwide awareness among the youth through his writings and peaceful protests. He is advocating for the protection of freedom of expression and human rights by engaging communities and supporting people’s voices around the world. He is also working hand in hand with government, donors, media, NGOs, celebrities and students to help acid survivors rebuild their lives and to prevent further attack.

Early life

Alok Dixit is born in a Bramhin family in Kanpur in 1988. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media, Bangalore, India.

Career

Alok joined Indian Air Force in 2007 and served till Mar 2009. He resigned from the service and became a fellow of IIJNM, Bangalore. After a short service as a reporter in TV9 News channel in Mumbai, he switched to Jagran Prakashan Limited and launched a portal Inext Live.

Dixit has done investigative reporting for Bangalore Mirror and revealed corruption in the police department in Bangalore. His sting operation at Avenue Road in Bangalore forced the authorities to take strong actions against the cops, involved in the extortion.

Alok fights for the survivors of acid attacks in India. His investigations on the poor condition of acid survivors got published in Tehelka magazine. He writes extensively on the issue of acid attacks in India.

Internet Censorship

Alok Dixit along with his friend Aseem Trivedi started Save Your Voice, which soon became a public movement in India. His campaigning against the government and intermediaries has gained international media attention. A debate on the issue of internet censorship has been started after the creative protests of Save Your Voice. Langada March was a big success of his campaigns in the initial days. Sibal’s Day Campaign and Freedom in the Cage involved young bloggers, writers, journalists and students to its campaign.

While reporting on the Sibal’s Day campaign, a reporter writes in Wall Street Journal, “ Although Save Your Voice is relatively small; it is gaining popularity on social media.” The Hindu observes Freedom in the cage as the idea which portrays 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.

Freedom Fast

With his reservations on the Intermediary Guidelines of the Information Technology Act, 2011 of India, Alok Dixit along with his colleague Aseem Trivedi started a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar to support the annulment motion in Rajya Sabha. Foreign Policy considers this fast as the ‘most colorful highlights’ from the internet freedom movements in India.

The former CNN journalist and co-founder of Global Voices Online, Rebecca MacKinnon writes, “A lively national Internet freedom movement has grown rapidly across India since the beginning of this year. The most colorful highlight so far was a seven-day Gandhian hunger strike, otherwise known as a "freedom fast," held in early May on a New Delhi sidewalk by political cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and activist-journalist Alok Dixit.” The Hindu quotes Alok on the fourth day of the Hunger strike, “The empowerment that social media provides has begun to be seen as threatening. This is an attempt to clamp down on an individual’s right to dissent and his freedom of expression. Alok and his friend ended their Anshan after their health deteriorated and Police forcefully admitted them to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi." Reporters Without Borders criticized Indian Government in their press release saying, “Two of the movement’s campaigners, the cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and the citizen journalist Alok Dixit, were forced today to end a hunger strike they began on 2 May. Their health had deteriorated considerably and they were hospitalized.”

Occupy India

Masked members of Save Your Voice held a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi against Indian government's attempts to restrict freedom on the Internet. The protest in India has been spearheaded by 'Save Your Voice' and 'Anonymous' at various historic monuments in 16 cities, of India. Alok took active part in the networking between the International hacking group and Indian members of Save Your Voice.

The protest has resulted in access being denied to a host of websites that carry pirated films and music among other legal content, including isohunt.com and pastebin.com. The website of one of the Save Your Voice members, Aseem 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.

Arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi

Police in Maharashtra state arrested Aseem Trivedi, a political cartoonist and the co-founder of Save Your Voice campaign, on Saturday, September 9, 2012. He faced charges of sedition, violating Internet security laws, and insulting national honor for publishing cartoons mocking national symbols and criticizing corruption on his website, Cartoons Against Corruption. After the Trivedi’s arrest, Alok run a nationwide campaign against the arrest of the cartoonist under the banner of Save Your Voice. The campaign got huge public support from civil society groups and artist communities across borders. Mahesh Bhatt, a prominent Bollywood figure and film director, joined the press conference at Mumabi Press Club with activist Alok Dixit and offered every possible support in Trivedi’s case. Alok has also mediated between the Home Minister RR Patil and cartoonist Aseem Trivedi when cartoonist refused to take bail. Dixit is now working closely with the prominent activists like Binayak Sen, Arvind Kejriwal, Arundhati Roy and Aseem Trivedi to repeal the Sedition Law.

Hunger Strike against Sec 66 A of the IT Act

After repeated misuse of sec 66 A of the IT Act Alok Dixit with his colleague from Save Your Voice, Aseem Trivedi decided to sit on an indefinite hunger (Anshan) strike against this draconian law. This got a bigger public attention when activist turned politician Arvind Kejariwal joined this campaign and promised to make it a nationwide agenda. He and his colleague Trivedi ended the fast after Kejriwal requested him not to waste his life and rather work towards ‘uprooting the UPA government’. To support the hunger strike, Anonymous hacked the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) website. BSNL home page showed an image of cartoonist Trivedi with text that read "Hacked by Anonymous India. Support Aseem trivedi (cartoonist) and Alok Dixit on the hunger strike. Remove IT Act 66 A databases of all 250 bsnl site has been d Hacked by Anonymous India (sic)".

See also

• The Information Technology Act, 2000
• Internet censorship in India
• Save Your Voice