Govt mulls asking social media companies to pull down objectionable content

Representatives of the department of electronics and IT (DeitY), home ministry and the intelligence agencies are likely to attend the meeting.
Govt mulls asking social media companies to pull down objectionable content
Govt mulls asking social media companies to pull down objectionable content
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The government is planning to send its representatives to meet senior officials of social media companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter and urge them to act upon requests to remove objectionable content including those that may incite communal sentiments, reported The Times of India.

Representatives of the department of electronics and IT (DeitY), home ministry and the intelligence agencies are likely to attend the meeting.

The report states, "At the meeting, the government will impress upon social media giants headquartered outside India and registered under laws of their respective countries like the US, to cooperate with the Indian law enforcement agencies in tracking, scanning and blocking communal and offending posts in the larger interest of maintaining communal harmony".

A senior officer told the newspaper, "We will remind them to act with due diligence, which requires them to restrain communal and other content that violates Indian laws."

The moves comes in the wake of the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri over rumours of him slaughteing a cow and storing meat in his fridge, adds the report.

The village head of Bisada in Dadri had blamed rumours spread on social media for the incident.

"Lately, we have witnessed rumours being spread by some miscreants who throw carcasses at certain places - including surroundings of temple premises - at villages in and around Bishada, click photographs and then circulate the same through Whatsapp and social media," said Sanjeev Rana, village head of Bishada village, talking to PTI.

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