In his statement, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “There is of course the freedom to speak, but Article 19A says that there are some restrictions in it.”
On 11 February, Union Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad warned social media companies that appropriate action will be taken against them if fake news or content is spread on inflammatory subject matter. In the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology asked companies like Twitter and Facebook to follow Indian regulations while doing business in the country.
He said in his statement, “There is of course the freedom to speak, but Article 19A says that there are some restrictions in it.”
He further said, “We respect social media very much, it has empowered the common people. Social media has a big role in Digital India program. However, if social media is misused to spread fake news and violence, action will be taken on misuse of social media in India. ”
The Union Minister further said that all social media platforms have to follow the Constitution of India. “The Indian Constitution allows criticism of the government and the Prime Minister, but will not be allowed to spread fake news.”
He added, “We have identified some issues on Twitter and social media. If they want to do business in the country, they have to follow Indian laws. Different criteria may not be allowed for different countries. The criteria for the Capitol Hill incident and the Red Fort incident cannot vary.
The Indian government had expressed its displeasure on Twitter on Wednesday as it did not comply with the government’s order to remove some ‘provocative’ tweets amid farmers’ protests in the country.
