The government on Monday ordered a crackdown on all inflammatory online content following cyberwarfare originating from Pakistan, blocking nearly 250 Internet platforms, including blogs and websites, used to incite communal strife and create fear among those belonging to the Northeast.
New Delhi will hand over evidence to Islamabad on the “hate” websites originating in Pakistan, home secretary R.K. Singh said Monday. Foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai on Monday briefed external affairs minister S.M. Krishna on the matter, and Mr Krishna is expected to take up this matter with Pakistan’s foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar in Islamabad early next month.
Pakistan on Monday rejected as “unfounded” India’s assertion that elements in that country were using social media networking sites to whip up communal sentiments in India, and asked New Delhi to provide “proof” of this.
Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik, referring to his phone talk on Sunday with home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, told reporters: “The Indian minister said rumours were generated from Pakistan through cellular services. I requested him (Shinde) to provide evidence to us, and we will take care of it.”
A Pakistan foreign office spokesman “totally rejected” India’s “allegations and insinuations” as “baseless and unfounded”.
The online hunt to nab the culprits is proving an uphill task for Indian investigators. It was found “proxy servers”, which hide user identities, operating from a number of countries were used to upload content, making it difficult to trace their footprints. A social networking site even told government agencies that the “uploaders of inflammatory and hateful content are outside the jurisdiction of the country”, implying that action cannot be taken. They also clearly indicated that a large part of the inflamatory material — over 38 per cent — had been uploaded from Pakistan.