Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Within minutes of saying he was against web censorship, former union minister and Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor has come out in support of Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on the issue of offensive content on social networking websites.
The Central government has spoken to Internet companies like Facebook and Google to curb offensive content on the web, especially in social media networks. And at a press conference Tuesday, Sibal said the government is looking at evolving a mechanism to curb “offensive” content on the web.
To this Tharoor had reacted on Twitter, posting: “As a frequent victim of disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory content on social media, I wish2stress I'm not in favour of censoring it.”
However, after speaking to Sibal Tharoor changed his stance and re-tweeted: “I understand Facebook is indeed taking down some pages that KapilSibal showed them. Pretty vile stuff. Sadly public didn't object2them 1st (sic).”
All societies observe certain restraints regarding language and images acceptable in public, he said, adding the web content Sibal was talking about was deeply offensive material and could incite riots.
“Have to say I support Kapil Sibal on the examples he gave me: deeply offensive material about religions&communities that could incite riots (sic).
“Spoke to KapilSibal. He assured me he opposes political censorship. Concern is re communally inflammatory images&language which he described (sic),” Tharoor tweeted.
First Published: Tuesday, December 06, 2011, 14:06