Reiterating that there was no question of censoring Internet content, Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday sought help from social networking websites and Internet companies in propagating government's various e-governance initiatives and make people more aware of the online environment.
Mr. Sibal, who chaired a meeting ‘Citizen engagement and use of social media' where functionaries of all leading Internet companies including Google, Facebook and Twitter besides other stakeholders were present, told journalists that the entire exercise was about how the social media could empower the government, since under the normal processes of the government there was always a limited dialogue with the representatives of society as the means are limited.
Asking the Internet companies to give their opinions on how to use social media and e-governance to empower citizens, Mr. Sibal, the government, along with the Internet fraternity, was trying to find ways to improve citizen engagement in policy formulation and implementation of its projects and programmes.
No move to regulate
Later briefing journalists, Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot said there was no plan to formulate a mechanism to regulate Internet content. “Whatever law has to be made are already in place...we are committed to abiding by what is there, according to the Constitution of India, which is freedom of speech and expression,” he noted. Mr. Pilot, however, pointed out that the government was committed to protecting privacy and identity of individuals besides addressing security concerns about data, including personal data.
