A Congress MP has called for the purification of Internet censoring the “abusive” and “filthy” comments on celebrities and politicians, often found in the comments sections of online news websites.
Speaking during zero hour in the Rajya Sabha, Shantaram Naik, a member from Goa, cited “vile” comments, such as the ones below a news item about Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda’s helicopter crash-landing at Ranchi Wednesday, as reason enough for “purifying” internet.
“When any news appears on the website of a daily, readers are allowed to post their comments and it is unfortunate that such comments are perhaps not edited or censored and are allowed to appear below the news-items for anyone surfing the net to read,” he said, adding that most comments were “abusive, filthy and derogatory”.
Naik singled out three comments from below a news website, in response to a news item about Munda’s copter crash landing, as illustrative of the internet menace, which, according to him, needed “purifying”.
“I would like to hear this news of everyday a chopper going down with a politician with no survivors except the crew….!!!”
“Provide a defective copter to all such politicians! We have got a way to save us from them….”
“Oh no copter is dead but CM is alive IJ Bad luck copter….”
“All the high-profile national and international personalities are abused day in and day out, but if politicians or personalities abroad do not object it, so it be. But we have to purify the system and take appropriate steps in our country,” Naik said, adding that if such comments were published in print, they would have “caused riots and ugly situations”.