Social media is a reality: Salman Khurshid

Kolkata: A central minister today said that social media like Facebook and Twitter were now a reality and had become a fact of life and not an 'embarrassment'.

"The issue is not of embarrassment. The issue is that social media has become a reality and has become a fact of life", union law minister Salman Khurshid said here when told that social media like Facebook and Twitter were causing

embarrassment to governments, particularly in the context of a recent controversy in West Bengal.

[caption id="attachment_284118" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="AFP"][/caption]

"Americans could not impose restrictions on Wikileaks, so we have to take the social media in our stride. It has become a fact of life", he noted. The minister said, "we have in the past come up with matters that we had to address. Sometimes we met with success and sometimes not", he said.

More from News Analysis

"There are very restricted opportunities to impose constraints on social media. I am not saying that there is no law in place," he told reporters at an Indian Chamber of Commerce interaction here.

"There is no conflict between social media and us...but a lot of stuff said or shown is unwholesome for children and vulnerable sections of the society", he added.

PTI