New Delhi: Asserting that government has no plan to censor Internet, telecom secretary R Chandrashekhar on Tuesday said a combination of self regulation and government intervention needs to be worked out.
“There is neither an intent nor a desire in the government to censor the Internet. That be absolutely clear,” Chandrashekhar said during a panel discussion organized by Ficci on freedom of online speech.
He, however, added there should be a discussion on legitimate restrictions and illegitimate censorship.
“There is need for a mature discussion on where do you really draw the line, who draws the line between legitimate restrictions and illegitimate censorship and what are the ways in which we can have some broadly agreed rules,” he said.
“We all agreed that we need to have some combination of self regulation and government intervention,” he added. The discussion involved members of civil society, Internet service providers and companies like Google and Facebook.
The government recently had banned around 310 webpages on which morphed images and videos were uploaded to incite communal tensions in the country. Morphed images and photographs of people who had died in cyclones and earthquakes were circulated as victims of violence in Myanmar on the Internet which led to exodus of northeast people from Bangalore fearing attacks on them.
“The law provides very clearly what kind of restrictions and in what circumstances they can be brought in,” Chandrashekhar said on powers of the government to block harmful content. He, however, said the process should be more transparent and well defined.