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Anindito Mukherjee/European Pressphoto Agency
Kapil Sibal, Minister for Telecommunications and Human Resources Development, in a 2005 file photo. |
NEW
DELHI: The government on Tuesday appeared set to dictate a code of conduct for
the social media networks and other websites despite an assurance from the
likes of Facebook
that they would remove content that violates their terms.
Indicating a hardening its stance, sources in the IT ministry insisted that the
terms should be in line with Indian community standards so that they do not
offend local sensitivities. While communications & IT minister Kapil Sibal
reiterated that the government was against censorship, he said that the US laws
and community standards could not be applied in India.
"We have to take care of the sensibilities of our people¦ Cultural ethos
is very important to us," Sibal told a hurriedly called press conference
at his residence on Tuesday. With the legal process expected to take a while,
the code of conduct may contain provisions that stipulate heavy penalty for
websites that put out "offensive" material, sources added.
The minister, however, managed to stir foreign websites and social media sites
such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to
engage after he disclosed that the government was trying since September 5 to
get these companies to formulate a strategy to check patently objectionable
material that could trigger social/communal strife on their websites.
Sibal said that the companies had verbally agreed to some of the elements of a
code discussed by the government but had now taken a position that they would
only remove objectionable content if the court asked them to do so. The
minister also said that on several occasions, these companies did not respond
to proposals sent by the government.
Maintaining that the government does not want to interfere with press freedom,
Sibal said if foreign social networking sites are not willing to cooperate with
the government on stopping "incendiary" material, "then it is
the duty of the government to think of steps that we need".
Although he refused to disclose elements of the proposed code of conduct, the
alleged unwillingness of these websites to cooperate with the government in
removing content has opened the doors for the government to step in to dictate
what it can classify as "objectionable".
Reacting to the minister, Facebook said in a statement, "We want Facebook
to be a place where people can discuss things freely, while respecting the
rights and feelings of others, which is why we already have policies and
on-site features in place that enable people to report abusive content. We will
remove any content that violates our terms, which are designed to keep material
that is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity off the
service. We recognize the government's interest in minimizing the amount of
abusive content that is available online and will continue to engage with the
Indian authorities as they debate this important issue."
Microsoft and Yahoo refused to comment, but Google seemed to be
holding firm on its decision to not follow Sibal's orders. A Google spokesman
told TOI: "We work really hard to make sure that people have as much
access to information as possible, while also following the law. This means
that when content is illegal, we abide by local law and take it down. And even
where content is legal, but violates our own terms and conditions, we take that
down too, once we've been notified. But when content is legal and doesn't
violate our policies, we won't remove it just because it's controversial, as we
believe that people's differing views, so long as they're legal, should be
respected and protected." Google also owns social networking site Orkut
and video-sharing site YouTube.
Officials showed print-outs taken from various websites which were caricatures
and sketches depicting Mecca, a Hindu goddess, PM Manmohan Singh
and Congress
president Sonia
Gandhi. Sibal said that following complaints received by him he had asked
his staff to search the internet and download some material. On seeing the
content that was "so offensive that it hurt the religious sentiments of
large sections of the community", Sibal said he called for a meeting in
early September.