More clamps on Twitter, FB soon: Sachin Pilot

India sought to build pressure on Twitter to block web pages hosting inflammatory content on Wednesday, with the home ministry and minister of state for IT & communications Sachin Pilot calling for “appropriate action” against defaulting websites. HT reports.

India sought to build pressure on Twitter to block web pages hosting inflammatory content on Wednesday, with the home ministry and minister of state for IT & communications Sachin Pilot calling for “appropriate action” against defaulting websites.

“All internet and social media networks operating in India must obey the law of land wherein non-compliance and violation of law could lead to action by the government,” Pilot said on the sidelines of a ‘Digital Literacy’ conclave organised by HT.

Echoing Pilot’s assertion, home ministry officials said they too had proposed “appropriate action” against websites that had not taken down pages containing inflammatory material.

But the US urged India on Wednesday to ensure basic freedoms were not impacted by its investigation into inflammatory material posted on the web causing panic in the Northeast.

Twitter — which is also under pressure from the prime minister’s office to remove six accounts resembling the PMO’s official account — told the government it would consider complaints about objectionable content.

Explaining the delay, it said the government “did not intimate through proper procedure electronically to our system”.