India calls for web self-censorship

THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT has called on social networking web sites to help it stop citizens from posting content defamatory to its leaders.

The BBC reports that fears that people might say not very nice things about its religious and political leaders has pushed the government into its heavy-handed approach, and explained that communications minister Kapil Sibal made the request to representatives of Facebook, Google, Youtube and Yahoo in a meeting on Monday.

Reportedly Sibal showed attendees doctored photos of India's prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi on Facebook during the meeting, and said that such images are widespread.

Facebook's Indian office said that it had heard the demands and would be happy to remove any content that violated its terms.

It said in a statement, "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."

The Hindustan Times reports that Sibal wants solutions to the problems and not censorship, despite how this looks.

"I suggested that these platforms should evolve a mechanism on their own to ensure that such contents are removed as soon as they get to know of it... I have told them that this cannot go on," he said.

"I believe that no reasonable person, aware of the sensibilities of a large section of the communities in this country, would wish to see this in the public domain... This government does not believe in either directly or indirectly interfering in the freedom of the press." µ