New Delhi: The online hate campaign targeting people from the northeast has put the spotlight on the power of the social media network in India, which counts more than 60 million users, and how this burgeoning community can be manipulated for insidious propaganda. The unprecedented exodus of people from the northeast, abetted by hate messages, has also opened the debate about issues related to internet freedom and content regulation. India, which is looking into the alleged role of Pakistan-based elements in using morphed images on internet, has blocked over 250 websites for orchestrating the online campaign of hatred. The last two years have seen an explosion of social media in the country with overwhelmingly young users. According to a report by iCRossing, nearly 36 million people in the country use Facebook. Of these, nearly 50 percent users are aged below 50. Estimates for 2012 posted on the India pages of various network sites show that microblogging site Twitter and LinkedIn have nearly 15 million users each in India. This mushrooming is a double-edged sword. Social media has created a vibrant online community and widened public discourse, allowing a platform for activists with a thousand causes. On the flip side, it has also become a vehicle of skewered propaganda, as the latest exodus of people from the northeast from cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad shows. "The next big war that India may have to wage against terror will be on the internet," said India-born Ankit Fadia, who is based in New York and is a cyber security consultant. "If any wrong, unacceptable and vicious content originates in Pakistan, it is the responsibility of the citizen of India to check the veracity of the content. If anything goes wrong, those monitoring the content should be held culpable. The government must take action against those who put unacceptable content on social media websites," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nirmala Sitharaman told IANS. Experts say the vast volume of users makers makes the task of monitoring difficult. The wide spectrum of subscribers' database which cuts social and language divides - with Facebook using Hindi as one its languages - has the potential to make the networks national security risk. Not every user is discerning and the fact that there are no entry barriers makes the sites porous. Anyone can log in. "The potential of an individual using a social networking site in a secretive manner is much more in a social networking site than in a social media. There is no procedure for registration and ownership. And so there is no way to pin down the culprits," media commentator N. Bhaskar Rao told IANS. He said the government had initiated a "Convergence Bill in 2000 for the merger of telecom, entertainment and info-tech platforms which could have taken care of the problems". But it failed to become operative.