NEW DELHI: Tension is brewing once again between the government and internet and social media companies over the telecom and IT ministry's demands to screen user content and remove offensive material before it is uploaded.
Sources said over the last three months the government has been in talks with these firms to put in place a monitoring mechanism. On Monday, telecom & IT minister Kapil Sibal met executives from the Indian units of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook to discuss the issue, but no solution was in sight.
"The Indian government doesn't believe in censorship," Sibal said in response to a query from TOI and ruled out any coercion. "It believes in self-regulation," he added. Officials, however, said the issue was proving difficult to be sorted out. The executives were shown content which could hurt religious sensibilities and obscene images of Indian political leaders.
The New York Times reported that about six weeks ago Sibal called legal representatives from the top internet service providers and Facebook into his office and showed them a Facebook page that maligned Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
NYT reported that Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft did not respond immediately to calls for comment, and a Google spokesperson said the company had no comment on the issue. Facebook said earlier this year it had more than 25 million users in India. Google has over 100 million users in the country.
The demand of the government comes after rules were issued by the ministry in April asking internet service providers to delete information posted on websites that officials or private citizens deemed disparaging or harassing. Last year, the government battled with BlackBerry's manufacturer, Research In Motion, threatening to shut the company's service off in India if it did not allow government officials greater access to BlackBerry messenger messages.
Click here to read more ......
Solutions : www.xcyss.in
No comments:
Post a Comment