NE exodus: Government asks DoT to act against social media

New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs has asked the Department of Telecom to initiate penal action against social media websites like Twitter as they have refused to take off offensive posts against Indians from the Northeast.

According to sources, the Department of Telecom is likely to act against as many as 28 web pages, of which most are on micro blogging website Twitter.

Also, a total of 310 pages will be blocked by the government by Wednesday. Out of these, around 65 pages were identified on Tuesday itself.

Meanwhile, sources have also said that India will approach the US seeking help in taking action against offensive posts on the social media. The Home Ministry is in touch with the US Homeland Security over the issue.

Earlier, speaking to CNN-IBN, Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar said that Twitter was not cooperating and legal action would be taken against all websites which do not respond. The hate messages sparked off the exodus of Indians from the Northeast from cities like Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.

Sources say 254 websites have been blocked so far and one person in Coimbatore has been held for forwarding a controversial SMS. Cases have also been registered in Pune and Mumbai. The preliminary investigation report will be shared with Pakistan.

Union Home Secretary RK Singh has said that the evidence will soon be shared with Islamabad. "Islamabad is demanding proof that the morphed pictures and hate messages originated in Pakistran. Proof will be handed over soon. A number of sites have been blocked. We have also identified a number of sites which were uploaded from Pakistan."

Meanwhile, Facebook and YouTube have informed the government that inflammatory content uploaded on their pages has indicated that they originated from Pakistan. "The initial response from international social networking sites indicates that such content has been hosted from outside the country and to a large extent from a neighbouring country (Pakistan)," Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEIT) said in a statement.

This came a day after the government squarely blamed the social media websites for the Northeast exodus saying they were misused and people needed to understand the scale of destruction caused by them.