Sibal’s Changing Tunes

It’s high time Sibal decides on what he wants from social media—does he want to gag it or promote it? Let’s find out

Afew days back our Union Minister for Information and Communications, Kapil Sibal was leaving no stone unturned to censor social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc, but now taking an entirely opposite route the Minister has suddenly gone gaga over its benefits.

The minister who had earlier asked social networking sites like Yahoo, Facebook, Google, etc, to control what is published in their sites, saying that there are many controversial matters posted in social networking sites that are objectionable, hurt the religious sentiments and depict the political leaders in poor light, has categorically been coming up with newer and different statements to hog the limelight and media attention. He had even conducted a meeting with the Indian leaders of these networking sites and asked them to comply or face action. In other words, he threatened the social networking sites of dire consequences if they did not toe his line.

What is ‘Objectionable’?

However Sibal has till date not clarified to his content of ‘objectionable’. Then he said he does not intend to censor social media but aims to frame a set of rules for pre screening of the content. Now keeping aside all the censoring and setting of guidelines, the gentle man has come up with a new twist. Well, he has set up a new vision for himself that he is trying to find ways to use these social media platforms effectively to reach out to the masses.

The minister said he had first met with officials of Facebook, Twitter, and Orkut on September 5 to discuss the concerns of the government over objectionable pictures being posted on their sites by users. The pictures, which were shown off the record, depicted Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a bad light, while some others were insulting to various religions.

Sibal who happens to be the communications and information minister has often refused to communicate with the media when touched upon as to what exactly he says ‘objectionable’. Meanwhile, the internet giants’ take on the subject are very clear unlike the minister.

What Others Say

“But it also means that when content is legal but controversial, we don’t remove it because people’s differing views should be respected, so long as they are legal,” a Google spokesperson states.

“We’ll 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,” Facebook states.

And now in the latest round table conference with around 100 stakeholders, Sibal has said that such close interactions on social media platforms not only build healthy democratic practices, but ensure more transparent governance. The government has called for an open dialog with the social media firms and asked for opinions on how social media and e-governance can empower individuals and citizens of this country.

Baffling Questions

Well, all we can say is that Sibal, who happens to be an advocate, needs to learn some advocating tips when it comes to the issue of social media, as his frequent day-to-day statements over the matter has certainly left him, the media and the citizens baffled.

Well, on a serious note, these statements also bring up a lot of questions, and the most important being, “Does whatever comment a government official give on Social Media count as an official government statement or is it just a political gimmick to take away people’s attention from other real issues like black money or Lokpal Bill”?

ritus@cybermedia.co.in