‘Keeping watch on the popular websites should be govt’s priority’

Pune: While the Internet is just around two-and-half decades old, it hosts millions of websites and is growing daily. The government is planning changes in the IT Act to shut down websites involved in illegal activities. However, the large number of websites makes it difficult for the government bodies to keep a watch on them. Moreover, several websites reflect user generated content, which adds to the trouble for the government. Cyber experts have pointed out that search engines will have to play a major role in controlling the menace of fake, hatred messages and obscene content on the Internet.
 
Speaking on the issue, cyber expert Chirayu Mahajan of Ana Cyber Forensics said that a common user uses a search engine to look for  content. “Search engines should have mechanism to filter fake content and should not reflect the same in their search option. Similarly there should be mechanism for people to report objectionable content to the website which should take action quickly against the user or content,” added Chirayu.

The cyber expert said it is easy to trace objectionable websites as they are hosted on a particular server. “Except websites hosted on darknet, the government can trace any website,” added Chirayu.

Cyber expert Anil Raj of Cybervault Securities Solutions Private Limited said although there are millions of websites, the ones which can cause problems of law and order or cheating are very few. “The government should focus on tapping websites which are getting attraction from people and have more users. Although we cannot get completely rid of fake and objectionable content on the Internet we can easily reduce such incidents. Spreading awareness among people about the issue is also necessary,” added Raj.

The cyber expert added that cheaper mobile phones and cheap Internet has led to the spread of technology to remote villages but digital literacy is yet to permeate in many corners of the country.

The experts said that content generated in regional language also makes it challenging for the agencies to differentiate between fake and genuine content.