The intermediaries and international social networking sites have indicated to the government that inflammatory and hateful content has been hosted from outside the country and to a large extent from Pakistan. Till now more than 125 websites have been blocked but action on more is still in the pipeline.
Investigations have also confirmed more than 38 per cent inflammatory material has been uploaded in Pakistan. Names of two groups operating from Pakistan are under the scanner.
Government agencies have asked the intermediaries and international social networking sites to provide registration details and access logs of the persons who uploaded such content.
“It is a painstaking job, as some posts are coming from as far as Kenya,” an official involved in the investigations said.
With security agencies probing all angles, including involvement of Pakistan’s ISI or any other outfits with terror linkages in Pakistan behind the online “hate campaign’’, Mr Singh said it was difficult to say at this stage who were behind it but the probe was on.
“You do not know who is behind it. To say or to deny that a particular organisation was or was not linked with any one is difficult. But some photographs have names of one or two organisations (of Pakistan),” he said.
For now, the National Investigation Agency is not being handed over the probe and government officials said cases are being registered in different cities under the Information Technology Act and IPC even as some fresh arrests have been made.
Seeking cooperation of social networking sites, the department of electronics and information technology said on Monday that a lot more and quicker action is expected to address the sensitive issue which concerns restoring peace, harmony, public order and national security.
It has also issued an advisory to all the intermediaries including national and international social networking sites last week, advising them to take necessary action to disable such inflammatory and hateful content hosted on their websites on priority basis.