Telecom Lead India: Indian telecom service providers will be forced to upgrade their software to intercept websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
India’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) has asked Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to instruct all telecom service providers to upgrade their software to intercept websites using web 2.0 technology.
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be under radar as the government is gearing up to set up a dedicated cyber surveillance agency to monitor websites and social media networks.The move is part of an effort to build and update both legal and technical safeguards to prevent misuse of internet, Times of India reported.
“Telecom service providers (TSPs), presently, do not have adequate lawful interception facilities for full reconstruction of web intercepts for various sites using web 2.0 technology like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Picasa etc. and quality of reconstruction of captured data is not good,” IB said in its note to the home ministry.
The note said DoT is requested to instruct all the TSPs to upgrade their lawful interception infrastructure/software in the monitoring systems to handle web 2.0 traffic for better reconstruction at the earliest.
At present, the government does not monitor or regulate content of websites. However, the Centre had in April, 2011, notified Information Technology Rules, 2011 under Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000. The rules provide for the intermediaries, which include social networking sites, to observe due diligence and guidelines including disabling malicious content after being brought to notice by affected persons or government agencies.
The Section 69A of the IT Act empowers government to issue directions for blocking of any information on internet in the interest of sovereignty, integrity, defence and security of the country.
