663 webpages blocked in 2012: Govt

BANGALORE, INDIA: The government issued directions to intermediaries for blocking 690 webpages for carrying anti-social and anti-national and hateful content under Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

"Based on the request of law enforcement agencies and directions of the Courts during the last three years, the competent authority issued directions to intermediaries for blocking of 690 webpages/URLs carrying such anti-social, anti-national and hateful content," Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, according to a report in The Hindu. Of the 690 webpages, 663 were blocked in 2012, he said, according to The Hindu report.

Last month, ‘Transparency Report' published by Google stated that the Indian government made the second largest demand for Web user information - next only to the United States government - to Google in the six-month period from January to June in 2012.

"In the first half of 2012, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 36,614 accounts," Dorothy Chou, Google's policy analyst, had written on the official Google Blog while presenting the report.