Sibal vows regulation to prevent websites from publishing ‘objectionable’ content

The government has asked social media networks, including Facebook, Google and Yahoo, to screen user content sourced from the country in order to prevent any "disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory" matter from getting published.

Addressing a press conference in the capital today, union minister of communications and information technology Kapil Sibal said the government is in the process of formulating stringent guidelines to regulate content on social networking sites.

He said the regulations would also provide for penalties on publishers if they fail to remove the ''objectionable'' content immediately after getting a complaint.

The government, in the meantime, has asked the social networks to develop their own tools to purge such ''objectionable'' content, he said.

He also cited non-cooperation on the part of these website at times when the government has objected to publishing of certain ''objectionable'' contents that hurt religious sentiments.

''Despite repeated reminders, the management of these websites did not respond for a long time and finally they informed me that it was not possible for them to cooperate in this regard. Therefore, I have decided to formulate guidelines to deal with objectionable content,'' Sibal said.