The social media like Facebook and Twitter were now a reality and had become a fact of life and not an 'embarrassment', a central minister said on Saturday.  

"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.

"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.

"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 in Kolkata.

"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.