Cyber proofs in 90 days an uphill task, admits Sibal

In the absence of a proper mechanism to put a blanket ban on social websites, the Centre, which has already named Pakistan as the culprit behind hosting of hate messages on social websites, is faced with the uphill task of gathering evidence within 90 days, after which the data stored on servers will elapse.

Admitting as much, Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said that since the data storage capacity is only for 90 days, the evidence gathering and presenting is a cumbersome task. Sibal has convened a special meeting with the Director Intelligence Bureau, National Security Advisor, Secretary IT and Secretary Telecom on Thursday to discuss the issue. The hate messages and websites first originated on July 13.


“Whom do we prosecute in the absence of a proper legal mechanism? The websites have to cooperate. While some of them have been doing, most of them are ignorant. It is time that the issue should be debated at international fora as this is a problem with which even developed countries are affected now,” Sibal told The Pioneer.

Sibal said that Department of Electronics & Information Technology has been working with international social networking sites on this issue. “However, a lot more and quicker action is expected from them to address such a sensitive issue which concerns restoring peace, harmony, public order and national security,” Sibal said, pointing to the North-East exodus which was a result of inflammatory and harmful content/ information appearing on social networking sites hosted outside the country in recent times. 

“These intermediaries and international social networking sites were also requested to provide registration details and access logs of the person who uploaded such content. An intermediary social networking site has responded that the uploaders of the inflammatory and hateful content are outside the jurisdiction of the country, thereby implying that they are not obliged to take any constructive step to deal with it,” Sibal said.


The websites in question cannot be blocked or their business cannot be clamped due to the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in force. MLAT is an agreement between two countries for the purpose of gathering and exchanging information in an effort to enforce public laws or criminal laws. This assistance may take the form of examining and identifying people, places and things, custodial transfers, and providing assistance with the immobilisation of the instruments of criminal activity.