Omar against web censorship

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday came out in support of internet giants like Google and Facebook saying it was impossible to censor everything on the web.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday came out in support of internet giants like Google and Facebook saying it was impossible to censor everything on the web.

'I don't agree with this whole thing about Google and Facebook being called to censor everything. I think it's not possible. I think internet is too far away from us to expect to censor it,' Abdullah said.

Pointing out that he is a victim of 'mindless abuse' by anonymous people on his Twitter account, he advocated self-regulation in the social media.

The chief minister was participating in a discussion at the Kolkata Literary Meet.

'Some amount of self-regulation is needed in the social media where you get the worst kind of abuses by anonymous people,' said the National Conference leader.

Google and Facebook are among 21 companies whose executives have been summoned to appear in person at a court in Delhi on March 13 for hosting allegedly obscene and objectionable content.

Telecom and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal had last month urged social network companies to remove offencive material from their sites.