After Sibal, Omar too feels some online content inflammatory

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Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said he was against media censorship but the content on some social networking sites were 'dangerous and inflammatory'.

"I hate the idea of censorship but have seen for myself how dangerous inflammatory content on Facebook and Youtube can be," Omar wrote on Twitter.

'Fall in line'

His comments came hours after the Communication Minister Kapil Sibal expressed concern over objectionable content on social networking sites. Making it clear that the government cannot allow this to go on, he has asked Internet firms like Google and Facebook to fall in line.

"I suggested that these platforms should evolve a mechanism on their own to ensure that such contents are removed as soon as they get to know of it...I have told them this cannot go on," Sibal told reporters in New Delhi today.

Omar, meanwhile, said 'if push came to shove I'd come down on the side of freedom of speech but it's one of those freedoms that has me worried unfortunately'.

"We want the luxury of free speech but not the burden of responsibility for how we use that freedom. Something will have to give," the chief minister tweeted.

Omar's father and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah in a function on Monday had also asked the media to tone down its reportage of protests in JK as it had a 'negative impact' on the Tourism industry.

India to take down 'objectionable content'

On Tuesday, there was anger across the World Wide Web after Sibal said 'the Indian government will not allow social networking sites to host 'objectionable' content and will take steps to screen and remove these.

Sibal said this a day after representatives from Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Microsoft during a meeting with him declined to remove offensive content.

Sibal said some of the content available on these sites could hurt the religious sentiments of a large section of communities in India.

"Religious sentiments of many communities and of any reasonable person is being hurt because of content which is on the sites," he told reporters here.

The minister said he had first met with officials of Facebook, Twitter and Orkut on September 5 to discuss the concerns of the government over objectionable pictures being posted on their sites by users.

Politicians and religion

The pictures, which were shown off the record, depicted Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a bad light, while some others were insulting to various religions.

"Nobody minds satirical image of any public personality but if you show a certain form of me... this is not acceptable. Even individuals should be protected," said Sibal.

The minister said these firms were hesitant to even share information relating to terrorist activities.

"They will have to give us data, then there will be actions taken. We will ask them to give information. Allow us time to deal with it. But one things is sure we will not allow this kind of content," Sibal said on being asked about the contours of the actions to be taken.

Sibal, however, did not say what the steps could be.

Web firms refuse data request

The secretary, department of telecommunications, R. Chandrashekhar, had also called a meeting with them on October 19 and it was decided that a framework would be prepared for the code of conduct of the intermediary in cases of these kinds of material or content.

"They orally agreed to many of the clauses but in a written reply did not agreed to any of the clauses." he added.

After a series of meetings, the companies did not provide a solution to the problem and did not remove the content either saying that they will take any action only if the ministry came with court orders.

The minister said he did not want to come to the press on this issue but was forced to do so after the New York Times reported that the government was trying to censor these sites, which was not true.

"This is far from the truth. If someone does not wants to remove this kind of incendiary material then the government has to do something about it," said Sibal.

According to the minister these platforms should evolve a mechanism on their own to ensure that such contents are removed as soon as they get to know of it the government never wanted to interface.

"This government does not believe in either directly or indirectly interfering in the freedom of the press," he said.