No response from Google, Twitter and Facebook over hate content

Facebook, Google and Twitter are yet to identify those behind the blocked inflammatory posts, in light of recent bursts of violence in the country in Assam, the Times of India reports. This information comes as talk is rife about the government coming down strictly on those who posted inflammatory content across social networks, subsequently initiating the widespread ’exodus’ of northeast Indians in the country. 

DIT sough for information on hate content (Image credit: Getty Images)

The Department of Information and Technology, in a letter to Google, Facebook and Twitter sent 10-12 days ago, sought the details of the accounts that uploaded questionable content, comprising images, videos and text to their respective sites. Reportedly, the information sought by the DIT was in line with the law that requires it to provide a hearing to those whose posts were blocked.

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The report adds further, “A DIT official claimed Google said it had pulled down objectionable posts from their sites in accordance with their policies and not under Indian law. The authorities are interpreting this as reluctance on part of foreign ISPs to help law enforcement in India, an outlook rejected by both Google and Facebook.”

Over the past month, reports about the widespread northeast exodus in the country got the Centre to come down heavily on the channels it believed to be playing a role in triggering fear. It has been found that morphed images and videos were uploaded to these websites with an aim to incite the Muslim community in the country. Further, reports indicate that a Pakistan-based hardliner group carried out the task of doctoring the images and disseminated them through popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. A report by the Home Ministry states that the majority of the content appeared online on July 13. Reportedly, fake profiles were created to spread the morphed images.  

At the time, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal stressed on the need of having an institutional mechanism in place to prevent the misuse of social networking websites in the country. “We have to make efforts in consultation with the websites and impress upon them to create an institutional mechanism to prevent misuse of technology,” he was quoted as saying outside the Parliament House. Now, in a step in that direction, the government is working along with social networking websites towards creating an institutional mechanism to check the misuse of social networking websites in the country.

The recent turn of events shed light on the role that social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter play in our lives today. Earlier reports have already established the fact that web pages containing content offensive to the sentiments of those from the northeast were splashed across the web in an attempt to incite violence and trigger fear in the country.