Lok Sabha Question No. 2879 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-12-16
Subject: Anti Religious Posts
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: TATHAGATA SATPATHY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2879

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 16.12.2015

## ANTI RELIGIOUS POSTS

## 2879 SHRI   TATHAGATA  SATPATHY:

Will the Minister of Communications & Information Technology be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the Government flagged posts on Social Media websites on the grounds of being "anti-religion";
- (b) if so, the details on the number of posts removed during the period of 2012-15, year-wise; and
- (c) the details of actions taken against those who posted them and under which act?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a)  and (b): Government takes action under Section 69A of Information Technology (IT) Act 2000 for blocking of websites/  Specific Web pages  with objectionable contents, whenever requests are received from designated nodal officers or upon Court orders for blocking of websites/ Web pages. Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000  empowers  Government  to  block  any  information  generated,  transmitted,  received,  stored  or  hosted  in  any Computer  Resource in  the  interest  of  Sovereignty  and  Integrity  of  India,  defence  of  India,  security  of  the  State, friendly  relations  with  foreign  States  or  public  order  or  for  preventing  incitement  to  the  commission  of  any cognizable offence relating to above.

There  is  no  institutional  monitoring  mechanism  for  monitoring  social  networking  sites.    At  present,  Law Enforcement and Security Agencies make searches on the Internet on specific case-to-case basis.  Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) within the National Media Centre in Ministry of Information and Broadcasting tracks current trends on social media and monitors Public Interface on the social media network.

A total of 136, 13 and 10 and 492URLs of social media websites were blocked in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 (till 30 th Nov 2015) respectively under Section 69A through the Committee constituted under the rules therein.  Further, a total  of  533,  432  and  352  URLs  of  social  media  websites  were  blocked  in  compliance  with  the  directions  of  the competent Courts of India in 2013, 2014 and 2015 (till 30 th November 2015) respectively.  Besides, Indian Computer Emergency  Response  Team  (CERT-In)  gets  requests  for  blocking  of  objectionable  content  from  individuals  and organisations, which merely forwards those requests to the concerned websites for appropriate action.

- (c):  The cyberspace is virtual, borderless and anonymous. Any one can open account in any name including fake name from any part of the world. Any user with any email address is allowed to register with social networking sites with any name including fake name. No background information check is performed by the social networking sites, which leads to creation of fake account by miscreants for committing crimes. Most of the networking sites  and their servers are located abroad.  In most of the cases, such fake accounts were successfully disabled in association with social  networking  sites,  having  offices  in  India.  However,  success  rate  is  low  in  disabling  accounts  and  getting information from social networking sites having offices abroad.

Also,  as per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 4,192 cases were reported under section 66A of the IT Act 2000 (under the offences of  sending offensive messages through communication services etc.) during 2014. State/UT wise cases registered, cases charge-sheeted, cases  convicted, persons arrested, persons charge-sheeted and persons  convicted  under  section  66A  of  the  IT  Act  (under  the  offences  of  sending  offensive  messages  through communication services etc.) during 2014  is  enclosed at  Annexure.  The latest data pertains to the year 2014 only, as section 66A is no longer valid since Hon'ble Supreme Court of India order in Shreya Singhal Vs Union of India on 24 th March 2015.

In all the above cases, data with regard to requests on the ground being 'Anti-Religion' is not maintained separately.

********* Annexure State/UT wise cases registered (CR), cases charge sheeted (CS), cases convicted (CV), persons arrested (PAR),  persons  charge  sheeted  (PCS)  and  persons  convicted  (PCV)  under  section  66A  of  the Information  Technology  Act  (Punishment  for  sending  offensive  messages  through  communication services, etc.) during 2014

|                |                   | 2014   | 2014   | 2014   | 2014   | 2014   | 2014   |
|----------------|-------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Code           | State/UT          | CR     | CS     | CV     | PAR    | PCS    | PCV    |
| 1              | Andhra Pradesh    | 89     | 30     | 0      | 63     | 31     | 0      |
| 2              | Arunachal Pradesh | 5      | 0      | 0      | 1      | 0      | 0      |
| 3              | Assam             | 377    | 22     | 1      | 349    | 22     | 1      |
| 4              | Bihar             | 111    | 13     | 1      | 105    | 14     | 1      |
| 5              | Chhattisgarh      | 66     | 35     | 0      | 58     | 52     | 0      |
| 6              | Goa               | 29     | 1      | 0      | 1      | 2      | 0      |
| 7              | Gujarat           | 43     | 17     | 0      | 48     | 29     | 0      |
| 8              | Haryana           | 76     | 20     | 3      | 40     | 30     | 4      |
| 9              | Himachal Pradesh  | 16     | 7      | 0      | 6      | 14     | 0      |
| 10             | Jammu &Kashmir    | 6      | 1      | 0      | 1      | 1      | 0      |
| 11             | Jharkhand         | 21     | 7      | 0      | 15     | 8      | 0      |
| 12             | Karnataka         | 603    | 47     | 0      | 175    | 64     | 0      |
| 13             | Kerala            | 229    | 105    | 6      | 160    | 128    | 6      |
| 14             | Madhya Pradesh    | 49     | 62     | 1      | 76     | 71     | 2      |
| 15             | Maharashtra       | 375    | 99     | 1      | 182    | 130    | 1      |
| 16             | Manipur           | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      |
| 17             | Meghalaya         | 5      | 3      | 0      | 4      | 4      | 0      |
| 18             | Mizoram           | 15     | 4      | 0      | 4      | 4      | 0      |
| 19             | Nagaland          | 0      | 1      | 0      | 0      | 1      | 0      |
| 20             | Odisha            | 30     | 4      | 0      | 4      | 4      | 0      |
| 21             | Punjab            | 123    | 35     | 6      | 85     | 39     | 6      |
| 22             | Rajasthan         | 291    | 75     | 3      | 107    | 107    | 3      |
| 23             | Sikkim            | 4      | 0      | 0      | 2      | 0      | 0      |
| 24             | Tamil Nadu        | 55     | 11     | 2      | 51     | 12     | 4      |
| 25             | Telangana         | 352    | 33     | 0      | 132    | 37     | 0      |
| 26             | Tripura           | 2      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      |
| 27             | Uttar Pradesh     | 898    | 137    | 6      | 592    | 210    | 6      |
| 28             | Uttarakhand       | 23     | 13     | 0      | 26     | 26     | 0      |
| 29             | West Bengal       | 144    | 32     | 1      | 98     | 34     | 1      |
| TOTAL STATE(S) | TOTAL STATE(S)    | 4037   | 814    | 31     | 2385   | 1074   | 35     |

| Code              | State/UT          | 2014   | 2014   | 2014   | 2014   | 2014   | 2014   |
|-------------------|-------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Code              | State/UT          | CR     | CS     | CV     | PAR    | PCS    | PCV    |
| 30                | A &NIslands       | 1      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      |
| 31                | Chandigarh        | 12     | 7      | 2      | 10     | 7      | 2      |
| 32                | D&N Haveli        | 3      | 0      | 0      | 1      | 0      | 0      |
| 33                | Daman &Diu        | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      |
| 34                | Delhi UT          | 137    | 39     | 5      | 27     | 44     | 5      |
| 35                | Lakshadweep       | 1      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      |
| 36                | Puducherry        | 1      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      |
| TOTAL UT(S)       | TOTAL UT(S)       | 155    | 46     | 7      | 38     | 51     | 7      |
| TOTAL (ALL INDIA) | TOTAL (ALL INDIA) | 4192   | 860    | 38     | 2423   | 1125   | 42     |

Source: Crime in India

Disposal of cases/persons by police/courts may include cases/persons of previous years also.

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