No censorship on social media: Sibal

Kapil Sibal, the union IT and telecommunications minister today said that no government can ever censor social media.

Speaking at the NASSCOM summit, Sibal said that global technology cannot pre-screen the content of social media. "The media has enormous power and has pre-screened what I have never even said," he quipped, denying that he had made any such statements seeking censorship.

The former lawyer, however said that, all the laws need to be adhered to. "When print media and electronic media obey laws, then social media is not above the law," he said. He also that government had no role to play in the cases which are being fought in courts, relating to social media. He said that government had no role to play in these matters and that they are between the sites and the complainants.

He also said that he was looking forward to a collaboration between geo-spacial technology and information technology. He stated a futuristic example of a situation where a farmer could get to know the calorific  value of the crop, based on geo-spacial and IT integrated technology. "IT in rural areas and agriculture is the way to go," he said.