In India, Mumbai police set up the first social media lab in the country. The main idea behind setting up this lab by Mumbai police is so that they can " Through [their] social media lab, [they] will come to know the pulse of the people as to what they are thinking, writing and what's happening in the city, country and around the world. By reading the mindset of what people are writing on various modes of communication, we will try to provide better and improved safety and security to the Mumbai citizens," This sounds all fine and dandy, but critics of this have said that they believe the lab will be used to impose more censorship in the country.
Censorship became a problem when, "Last year, [where] controversy surrounding social networking sites surfaced when two teenaged girls were arrested in the state’s Thane town for allegedly making offensive comments about then deceased chief of the Hindu radical Shiv Sena party, Bal Thackeray. Their arrests spurted a furious debate on the role of censorship and freedom of expression in the country." So are the police setting up to cause more censorship in their country or are they trying to understand how social media works and are attemping to protect their citizens from certian dangers of the internet?
It's been stated by, "Commissioner of Police Satyapal Singh said its purpose was not to invoke censorship on discussions of various subjects, but only to analyse them." We can only hope that this is what they plan on using it for. It is too early to tell if this social media lab will be good for the police in protecting their citizens or that it will cause more censorship in India; creating issues concerning their citizen's freedom of speech/expression.