Government finding it difficult to block hate content on Twitter: Kapil Sibal

NEW DELHI: Communications Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday said that solution to the problem of controlling hate content on social media should be a permanent one, admitting that the government was finding it difficult to block content on Twitter.

"The difficulty is that Twitter is a site, which operates from outside India and the server of all such sites are outside the jurisdiction of India. We have also imposed restriction on those sites. But as far as Twitter is concerned, it is only now they have said that they are ready for talks with us," Sibal said.

The government has asked Twitter to block 28 accounts, some of which include @i_panchajanya, @sanghpariwar, @barbarindian, @scamsutra and @redditindia. The Prime Minister's Office has also asked Twitter Inc to take appropriate action against six persons impersonating the PMO on the microblogging site.

In a press statement, Pankaj Pachauri, media advisor to the Prime Minister, said: "Twitter did not reply for a long time. But it has now conveyed to us that action has been taken and they have removed the reported profile from circulation due to violation of our Terms of Service regarding impersonation." However, when ET cross-checked on Twitter.com, the six accounts, including @PM0India, @theIndianPM and @PMOIndiaa, were active till Friday evening.

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which has members such has Facebook, Yahoo! and Google, said: "Our members believe that hate speech and other illegal content should be removed when duly notified in accordance with Indian laws. All member companies have been responding expeditiously to requests from the government."

In a related development, the association also welcomed the notification of the government's policy paper titled "Framework and Guidelines for use of Social Media for Government Organisations".