New Delhi, Aug 24 (ANI): Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday said Google and Facebook are cooperating with the government clampdown on Internet postings and material that threaten national security.
Sibal said Google and Facebook have largely cooperated, while Twitter has been much slower to respond.
"The difficulty is that Twitter is a site, which operates from outside India, and the server of all such sites are outside the jurisdiction of India. We are happy that Facebook and Google are cooperating with us and the names of the objectionable sites that we had provided them, they cooperated with us on them, and decided to close down those sites," said Sibal.
"We have also imposed restriction on those sites. But as far as Twitter is concerned, now they have said that they are ready for talks with us," he added.
Sibal further said that Twitter has been instructed to remove 28 pages containing 'objectionable content'.
"We can take action, but in that case, restrictions are also imposed on people who are right on their part. So, we don't want that to happen. So, we have provided 28 URL numbers under which objectionable material is being shown," said Sibal.
"Now, the government does not know that who is behind these URL numbers, only Twitter and other sites are aware about it," he added.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said there is no censorship at all, and added that action will only be taken against those involved in spreading rumours and creating tension.
"We are only taking strict action against those accounts or people causing damage or spreading rumours. We are not taking action against other accounts, be it on Facebook, Twitter or even sms. We are not putting charges on anybody unnecessarily, I assure you about this," said Shinde.
"Action will only be taken against people, who are involved for spreading rumours and creating tension," he added.
India blocked access to more than 300 web pages after threatening mobile phone text messages and doctored website images fuelled rumours that Muslims were planning revenge attacks for the Assam violence, where over 80 people have been killed and 3,00,000 have been displaced since July.
Fearing for their lives, tens of thousands of migrants fled Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities last week.
According to certain media reports, the government's decision to block certain Twitter accounts, including that of journalists, had angered the people. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
