Facebook to India: We Have Our Own Guidelines for Screening Content

The largest social networking site has told the Indian government that it has its own guidelines it uses to screen content posted by its users.

Less than a day after the Indian government urged social networking Web sites and Internet companies to screen alleged derogatory and defamatory content about the country's religious figures and leaders, Facebook has responded noting that it removes content that violates its rules.

We will remove any content that violates our terms, which are designed to keep material that is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity off the service, a Facebook statement read, as reported by The Washington Post.

Reuters reported that Facebook has also said that it will continue to engage the Indian authorities as they debate this important issue.

On Monday, The New York Times reported that Kapil Sibal, the telecoms and information minister, met with officials from Indian units of Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to discuss prescreening content that may be inflammatory before it goes online.

That report also noted that approximately six weeks ago, Sibal requested that legal representatives from the Internet service providers and Facebook visit his New Delhi office where he told then that a Facebook page maligned Congress Party president, Sonia Gandhi.

Sibal reportedly said he found that unacceptable.

The NY Times report also noted that in a late November meeting, Sibal told the representatives that they should use humans to monitor their content and not technology.

The Guardian has reported that Sibal has said his ministry is working on guidelines for taking action against any companies that didn't respond to the government's requests.

However, he didn't go into details about those guidelines, The Guardian reported.