Asia Bizz: Kapil Sibal, India’s Communications Minister pointed out towards defamatory and disparaging content on some of the social networking sites in an announcement on December 5, 2011. Sibal even pointed out towards those related to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and asked the websites to remove all such content or to face action.
To clarify things further, Sibal met with some of the senior functionaries from online giants like Google, Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo and asked them to create a mechanism that could filter such defamatory and inflammatory content capable of creating social tension.
The minister also pointed out towards the uploading and downloading of the morphed pictures of popular leaders. Sibal also mentioned about the use of the material that can hurt the religious sentiments of the people and create an unneeded crisis situation in the Asian country.
One of the senior officials from the Department of Communications said that the websites have been asked to be more vigilant towards the content and ensure that such objectionable matter is not used on the internet. The websites have also been asked to inform such defamatory content so that immediate action can be taken. The content has to be actively screened and filtered before they are uploaded on the websites. Sibal particularly pointed out towards the use of morphed images of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh on Facebook.
