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DELHI: India has demanded social networking websites take down provocative messages and has blocked some online content after anonymous threats sparked an exodus of migrants.

Tens of thousands of workers and students from the remote north-east region returned home last week from Bangalore, Mumbai and other cities fearing reprisals from Muslims over recent ethnic clashes in the state of Assam.

The Indian government has said many of the web posts, fake video clips and phone messages spreading rumours of plans to target migrants were sent from Pakistan.

The Ministry of Communications said on Monday an order had been issued last week but that ''such inflammatory and harmful content continued to appear on the social networking sites''.

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It said it was meeting representatives of the sites to curb content, and that ''a lot more, and quicker, action is expected from them to address such a sensitive issue''.

Google issued a statement on Tuesday saying any content intended to incite violence was already prohibited on its products, including YouTube videos.

''We understand the gravity of the situation and continue to work closely with relevant authorities,'' it said in response to the government's demands.

Officials declined to name which other sites were affected, while Twitter and Facebook were not immediately available for comment.

The government also said 245 web pages had been blocked, declining to give further details.

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India censors social networking sites after exodus

21-08-2012 20:07 According to a report by ComScore, in India one of four online minutes are spent on Social Networking sites. While Google maintained its dominance by reaching 95 percent of the online population, social networking sites accounted for 25.2 percent of all online minutes. Even reach wise, social networking sites like Facebook have started to match Google sites in terms of reach. Facebook reached 83.4 percent of the population with over 50000 unique visitors. Read more at

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Indians spend 25 percent of their online time on social networks - Video

The Marsh Tit is one of the birds in the study that used social networking skills to find new food sources. Source: Supplied

SCIENTISTS have discovered that humans arent the only ones who find out about the hottest new grazing spots via social networking.

The birds, theyre into it too. Namely blue tits, great tits and marsh tits.

No, filthy buggers, thats not some kind of pun. Tits are a breed of bird that can mostly be found in the UK and Europe.

Researchers from the Australian National University in Canberra and Oxford University discovered that the birds used social networking to communicate about new food locations.

The birds were equipped with tags to monitor their activity and the scientists built sunflower feeders in four small areas across two sites of woodland near Oxfordshire, known as Higgins Copse and Cammoor, and fitted them with antennae.

Over two months in winter the researchers placed feeders in set locations well-known to the birds, measuring their patterns of associations in the feeding flocks, their "social-network".

They recorded 7790 separate food visits at Higgins Corpse and 11,866 visits at Cammoor, with 81 and 68 different birds.

After this data-collection period a single feeder was installed at a location that was not known for its food resources, so that no bird would have any pre-existing knowledge of the site.

They then recorded who discovered these new feeders, and in what order. They repeated the experiment several times at in each woodland area between December 2010 and January last year, leaving seven days between each trial.

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How birds 'Facebook' to survive

India has demanded social networking websites take down provocative messages and blocked some online content after anonymous threats sparked an exodus of migrants from southern cities.

Tens of thousands of workers and students from the remote northeast region returned home last week from Bangalore, Mumbai and other cities fearing attacks from Muslims in reprisal for recent ethnic clashes in the state of Assam.

The Indian government has said many of the internet posts, fake video clips and phone messages spreading rumours of plans to target migrants were sent from arch-rival Pakistan.

The Ministry of Communications said late on Monday that an order had been issued on August 17 but that 'such inflammatory and harmful content continued to appear on the social networking sites'.

It added the government was meeting with representatives of the sites to curb the content, and it stressed that 'a lot more and quicker action is expected from them to address such a sensitive issue'.

Google issued a statement on Tuesday saying any content intended to incite violence was already prohibited on its products, including YouTube videos.

'We understand the gravity of the situation... and continue to work closely with relevant authorities,' it said in response to the government's demands.

Officials declined to name which other sites were affected, while Twitter and Facebook were not immediately available for comment.

The government also said 245 web pages had been blocked, declining to give further details.

Asked whether social networking sites were being used to whip up ethnic tension, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told reporters: 'We have got sufficient evidence. The whole process is in investigation mode.'

Originally posted here:
India blocks social network websites

21-08-2012 02:28 The government has identified over 250 websites and blogs that participated in the online campaign of hatred against Indians from the North-East. About 125 websites have already been blocked. Rest will be forced offline in the next few hours. The Department of Telecom has said that objectionable content is still available online and has suggested that social networking sites have not responded to requests to urgently delete inflammatory posts.

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North-East scare: Social networks not doing enough, says government - Video