Over 4400 Facebook, Twitter URLs blocked in 2020: Dhotre
Over 4,400 URLs from Facebook and Twitter were blocked
by the government in 2020 under Section 69A of the IT Act, Parliament was
informed on Wednesday.
Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre said
Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000 empowers the government to block any
information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer
resource in the interest of sovereignty and security of the country, friendly
relations with foreign states, public order or for preventing incitement to the
commission of any cognizable offence related to these.
"Blocking is done as per the process specified in the IT
(Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information By Public)
Rules, 2009 notified under this section," he said in a written reply to
Lok Sabha.
Dhotre said there are adequate safeguards and checks-and-balances
prescribed in these rules in the form of an Inter-Ministerial Committee having
members as a joint secretary or equivalent to examine blocking requests and to
make its recommendation.
He stated that 1,717 URLs from Facebook and 2,731
URLs from Twitter were
blocked in 2020.
While 2,049 Facebook URLs and
1,041 Twitter URLs
were blocked in 2019, 155 Facebook URLs and 224 Twitter URLs were blocked in
2018.
In response to another question, the minister said a total of 305
cases of cybercrime against children were registered in the year 2019.
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