Govt says Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp being used for hate campaigns

Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms have been misused on several occasions to spread hate campaign in the country, government said today.

"Instances of misuse of Twitter, Facebook, email, blogs and WhatsApp to spread hate campaign in the country have come to the notice of the government from time to time," Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary said in reply to a written question.

Chaudhary said several incidents of availability of inflammatory, harmful and hateful content on various websites including social networking sites hosted outside the country were also brought to the notice of the government.

The Minister, however, said the government does not monitor or regulate content on social-media networking sites.

However, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011 under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act requires that the Intermediaries shall observe due diligence while discharging their duties and shall inform the users of computers resources not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, update or share any information that is harmful, objectionable, affect minors and unlawful in any way, he said.