The government on Friday said as many as 33 incidents of misuse of social networking sites were reported between April 2010 and July 2011.

"During the period April 2010 to July 2011, a total number of 33 incidents of misuse of social networking sites, related to publishing of objectionable content pertaining to political leaders, religion, national security and individuals were reported to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In)," Minister for Communications and IT Kapil Sibal said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He added there is a large number of users logging on to the sites, which makes it "practically very difficult to keep a vigil on all content posted/hosted on these sites". The government has notified Intermediary Guidelines Rules, 2011 under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

These rules provide for the intermediaries to follow self-regulation. The intermediaries are also required to designate a grievance officer to redress such requests by the affected person, the Minister said.

"Any affected person may report the misuse of networking sites to the intermediary hosting these networking sites and request for removal/disabling of wrongful facts or objectionable content," Sibal added.