Facebook, Google, Twitter and other web firms are facing pressure from the Indian authorities to censor their sites for content which may defame the government or offend religious sensibilities.

According to reports, Indian telecoms and IT minister Kapil Sibal met executives from a number of social media companies on Monday to ask them to screen content more rigorously.

However, Sibal has since denied that he was trying to promote government-led censorship, suggesting instead that it is the duty of social media companies to remove the content.