New Delhi: In an investigation, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) of Bangalore found that under subtle government pressure, major web sites were already censoring content in India. The CIS filed seven complaints to these web sites about "offensive" content and on six occasions, the sites removed the content without even investigating the complaint. The shocking revelation comes in the wake of Union IT minister Kapil Sibal's call for censorship of social networking sites like Facebook, Google and Yahoo. 
In the CIS investigation, researchers sent "fraudulent" takedown letters to seven internet companies making claims without providing any evidence that certain third-party content violated provisions under the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules" that were issued in April 2011, the report on the CIS website says quoting Sunil Abraham, executive director of CIS. "The CIS carried out an investigation into the chilling effects of new information technology laws on freedom of expression online, with six out of seven major websites removing innocent content online without proper investigation, creating a private censorship regime," the report says of the investigation that was carried out some time earlier this year. The veiled threat of censorship from the government comes from the guidelines issued for the "intermediaries". The article on the CIS website says that the rules, which came into force in April 2011, are aimed to limit the liability of web sites acting as intermediary publishers of information, if they comply to a takedown mechanism. "The rules were procedurally flawed because they ignored all principles of natural justice," CIS said in its report. Read Full: Websites in censorship under pressure
