As India Pushes For Ban on Offensive Content, Facebook Responds

India’s communications minister Kapil Sibal [1] today affirmed the nation’s intent to ban offensive online material, after making requests to internet companies such as Facebook, Google and other internet companies to control their distribution. The AFP quotes Sibal as saying:

Three months back we saw that Google, Yahoo!, Facebook had images which could be an insult to Indians, especially religious-minded people … We told them to find a way that such insulting images are not uploaded. We gave them some time … but there was no response.

He added that the internet companies defense that they are merely platforms upon which individuals can display material is not an adequate one:

I feel that this in principle was not correct but it is very clear that we will not allow such insults to happen. We are thinking and will take the next step,“ he said. ”We will not allow our cultural ethos to be hurt.

NDTV reports that Facebook has issued a statement amid all this mess:

We want Facebook to be a place where people can discuss things freely, while respecting the rights and feelings of others, which is why we have already have policies and on-site features in place that enable people to report abusive content. 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. We recognise the government’s interest in minimising the amount of abusive content that is available online and will continue to engage with the Indian authorities as they debate this important issue.

As for Mr Sibal, an unfortunate side effect of his opposition to offensive content is resulting in a social media reaction that might offend the minister himself. The hashtag #IdiotKapilSibal is currently seeing a lot of chatter, and I’m sure he wishes that outburst could be censored right about now. Maybe he could pay off some people to harmonize his image, like they do in China…