New Delhi: As a controversy raged over monitoring offensive content on internet platforms, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday asked social websites like Google and Facebook to ensure that uploading of derogatory material is stopped.
Maintaining that the government does not want to interfere with the press, he said if the social networking sites are not willing to cooperate with the government on stopping incendiary material “then it is the duty of the government to think of steps that we need.”
“This government does not believe in sensation and does not believe either directly or indirectly interefering in the freedom of the press. We have demonstrated that time and again,” he said. Sibal’s hurriedly called press conference against backdrop of government’s meetings with the officials from Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo over last few weeks after offensive material partucularly against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was put on the net.
He said his request for cooperation from them fell on “deaf ears” and “we will not allow intermediaries to say that the throw up our hands and we cannot do anything about it.”
Even as Sibal defended the government’s move, criticism poured in the cyber space that India should not emulate countries like China in attempting to gag freedom of expression.
However, the Minister got support from Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, who is popular in cyber world. “Have to say I support Kapil Sibal on the examples he gave me: deeply offensive material about religions & communities that could incite riots,” Tharoor tweeted.
But his political rivals and MPs Varun Gandhi and Jayant Choudhary differed.
Gandhi said Internet is the only truly democratic medium free of “vested interests, media owners & paid-off journos. Can see why Sibal wants to gag it,” he said.
Chaudhary said “Censorship of the internet – Forget the desirability issue for a minute, IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE??!!!” Social networking site Facebook said they would remove any content that violates their terms which are designed to keep material that is “hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity off the service.
“We recognise the government’s interest in minimising the amount of abusive content that is available online and will continue to engage with the Indian authorities as they debate this important issue,” the Facebook statement said. The Minister said on the platform of Google, Facebook, You Tube, Tweeter and the like, the subject matter was so offensive that it would hurt the religious sentiments of the large section of communities in this country.
“What we will do in future is something we will discuss within the ministry and then ensure that in times to go this kind of material should not be allowed and should be disabled as and when its is brought to our notice and brought to their notice,” he said. (PTI)