New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday indicated that the spreading of rumours with malafide intention on social networking sites could not be interpreted as freedom of speech. Speaking on the 'pros and cons of tweets' in the Big Tent Activate Summit, Omar said that twitter in the present day political space "supplements and complements what we do", but added that the micro-blogging site could not be an accurate indicator of what people think. "I can't use twitter to gauge the mood of people in Kashmir, as to how they react to a particular story. I can use it to get my point of view across," he said.
Asked about the use of the micro-blogging site, especially in the aftermath of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's hanging, Omar said that use of social networking sites is a classic example after the execution was done in the national capital.
Omar added that, "No sooner had he (Afzal) been executed, we started seeing rumours on social media that his mother died because of shock and you saw people coming out to protest his mother's death, which had not happened. So, we ask service providers like Google and others to block sites. It's not an easy call to make for somebody who uses social media to get his messages across and then turn around and ask for blocking it."
Asked whether that was the reason for blocking the Internet after Afzal's hanging, Omar said with a smile that, "We did not block the Internet, we only shortened the bandwidth so that rumours do not fly from one part of the Valley to other."
Omar, who was flanked by Union Minister Shashi Tharoor and the campaign manager for US President Barack Obama, Stephanie Cutter, added that it created a "huge problem for us in drawing a fine line between free speech and something that can be hugely problematic."
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