Kapil Sibal's Web censor plan under fire on social networks
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India has asked operators of social media networks, including Facebook, Google and Yahoo to screen user content from the country and prevent any 'disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory' content from getting published, it was reported on Tuesday.
Telecoms minister Kapil Sibal met executives at those companies on Monday to ask them to implement a monitoring mechanism, but no solution was reached, the reports said.
A media report claimed the minister backed his argument by showing representatives from top social networking sites and service providers a Webpage attacking a Congress leader. The representatives reportedly informed Sibal the proposed censor was impossible due to the sheer volume of data being uploaded by users in India.
Sibal's move has also been attacked on social networks, including Twitter.
"The next task Kapil Sibal is going to undertake is to enumerate the grammatical errors in a Chetan Bhagat novel, read a Tweet. There's even a push to organise opinion under #IdiotKapilSibal.
"Kapil Sibal Asks Google, Facebook to Scan User Content" - "Google, Facebook asks Kapil Sibal to Scan Brains," read another tweet.
This will not be the first time the government has sought a censor on Web information. A Google report has claimed that the Indian government had made over 50 requests to take down data in 2011.
Sibal is expected to address the media later on Tuesday.
A source with direct knowledge of the development told Reuters that a meeting did take place, adding, the government often asks the companies to remove objectionable content.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment, when contacted by Reuters, while a spokeswoman for Facebook's external communication could not be reached.
Yahoo India could not offer any immediate comments.
A New York Times report on Monday said Sibal had called the same executives about six weeks ago and had shown them a Facebook page that maligned a senior Congress leader.
An official at the ministry of communication and information technology cited Sibal as saying that India does not believe in censorship, but in self-regulation.
India now has 100 million Internet users, less than a tenth of the country's population of 1.2 billion, but still the third-largest user base behind China and the United States. It is seen swelling to 300 million users in the next three years.
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