The
assertion comes amid growing unease among global website and social
media companies over the government asking the social websites to ensure
that uploading of derogatory material is stopped.
"We
do not believe in censorship of any kind. All over the world, every
company has to operate in accordance with the law. Any company wishing
to operate in a country has to follow the law of the land," IT and
Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar told reporters on the sidelines of an
event in New Delhi on Thursday.
He added that everyone is aware of technology and there is a need to develop some mechanism to abide by the law.
Recently,
the Centre had filed a report in a court saying there was sufficient
material to proceed against 21 websites, including Facebook, Google,
Yahoo and Microsoft, for alleged offences of promoting enmity between
classes and causing prejudice to national integration.
Advocate
N K Kaul, appearing for Google India, had argued that "the issue
relates to a constitutional issue of freedom of speech and expression
and suppressing it was not possible as the right to freedom of speech in
democratic India separates us from a totalitarian regime like China".
However,
the Delhi High Court judge Suresh Kait, hearing the case, had warned
Google India and social networking site Facebook India that websites can
be blocked like in China if they fail to devise a mechanism to check
and remove objectionable material from their web pages. |
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