Sibal rules out censoring social media

Ruling out any plan to censor social media, union telecom and information technology minister Kapil Sibal today said the companies needed to obey the law of the land.

The comments came in the context of a Delhi court order asking social and networking media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google etc to remove objectionable contents.

The order of the court came after Sibal initiated certain measures to rein in social media organisations from hurting religious sentiments.

"No government in the country will ever censor social media. But we need to make sure that everybody obeys the laws of the country. If the print media and visual media obey the laws, the social media can also obey the laws," Sibal told the Nasscom Leadership Summit that got underway in  this morning.

"I want to say once and for all, without any obfuscation, no government in India will ever censor social media," he further said.

After a local Delhi court early this month put social media companies on notice in the event of their failure to take steps to protect religious sensibilities, internet giants Google and Facebook removed the offensive contents from their India websites.