The government of India has trusted Industry body IAMAI with the task of identifying objectionable content on the net in India. The same was informed to Parliament by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Telecom Minister on Friday.
Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which is an association of content providers, has been bestowed upon with the task of making a list of objectionable websites, particularly porn sites, available on the net.
The websites included in the list by IAMAI will then be considered for disabling.
The top ranks at the Industry body IAMAI are currently held by the Indian heads of leading international internet giants.
Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Google India, is the Chairman of IAMAI, while Kirthiga Reddy, India Chief, Facebook, is the Vice Chairman of the industry body.
According to Prasad, currently, the government doesn’t have any proposal to formulate a policy to censor content on the net.
“Government takes action, whenever sites/URL pages with objectionable contents infringing any law of the country are brought to its notice by law enforcement agencies, or when court issues direction to block any URL of websites,” said Prasad in Rajya Sabha.
Prasad had informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the Modi government had blocked 32 websites, including web-pages, in November last year. The request for the same was sent by the Anti-Terrorism squad of Mumbai and was accompanied by a court order.
According to the Anti-Terrorism Squad, the 32 blocked web pages and websites were being used to promote "jihadi" propaganda and for luring Indian youth into joining "jihadi" activities and ISIS.
All these blocked websites and web pages were later unblocked after their owners guaranteed to comply with the law and its rules and also follow consultation with the Anti-terrorism squad.
As per the official information shared in the Lok Sabha, the owners of these blocked websites took the help of the social media website Twitter to respond to the government’s ban and assured work within the law.
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