NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that    mere political dissent or criticism through social networking    sites could not be a ground for arrest of the author but    maintained that Section 66A of Information and Technology Act    was meant to deal with those who threaten to harm others    physically and culturally.    
      This stand would provide much needed relief to the cyber      citizens as many in the past had been hounded by law      enforcing agencies for posting "objectionable" posts in the      social networking sites.    
      Sources in the government said the government's stance was      prompted by a direct intervention by Prime Minister Narendra      Modi. Sources said during deliberations, Modi made a strong      pitch for complete freedom of expression on social media,      saying that the provisions of the IT Act should be read in      conformity with the Article 19(2) of the Constitution which      guarantees free speech.    
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      Internet service providers, through senior advocate K K      Venugopal, said that in a democracy the government should not      have power to order them to take down some material posted on      their sites as such a provision was prone to be misused for      political purposes.    
      Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta, citing the recent      case of Twitter handle on which offensive messages on behalf      of radically fundamental ISIS group were being posted, argued      that such a provision was needed. But he said: "Mere      political dissent or hot discussion cannot be a ground for      taking action against the social networking sites and people      who post such message." "This is the only media which is      censor free. Emergency would have been a big fiasco had there      been social media at that time," Mehta told a bench of      Justices Chelameswar and S A Bobde.    
      The ASG also stressed that there were very few cases when the      government has asked the service provider to remove such      contents, even as he made a case for "reasonable" curbs.    
      "If through a twitter post, people are asked to join      terrorist organization, then there is a reasonable ground to      ask the service provider to remove the material," Mehta said.    
      He also said that if someone initiated action against service      providers for posting "obscene" contents then there would be      no protection under IT Act and the case would be adjudicated      by the court.    
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Dissent on cyberspace no offence, Centre says in SC