NEW DELHI: India is seeking to arm itself with the power to block Twitter and other social networking sites in select states and regions, but may find it difficult to do so as telecom companies and Internet service providers (ISPs) say this is technologically almost unfeasible and will involve huge expenditure.

The government has asked ISPs and mobile phone firms to build 'embedded technologies' that will enable it to ban social media and other websites in specific geographies, said a senior home ministry official. The move comes after the government's recent attempt to block Twitter in select regions in the country failed as telcos said they lacked the technology to bar websites on a state-by-state basis.On August 23, the home ministry had asked the information technology ministry to direct ISPs and telcos to block Twitter in eight states - Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh - amid concerns that the popular social networking website was being used to fan communal tensions in the wake of the unrest following violence in the border districts of Assam.But the Twitter ban order was not implemented after telcos said they could only block websites and social networking sites on a national basis. There are than 16 million Twitter accounts in India."Tata Communications does not allocate IP (internet protocol) address to its customers on a state-wise basis and hence there is no IP address range specific to any of the states in India. Specific area-wise or state-wise blocking of websites is technologically not feasible," the company told the IT ministry.Bharti Airtel said websites could only be blocked at its two gateways in Mumbai and Chennai, the points where cyber traffic enters and exits the country, and added this would result in the particular website being inaccessible on a national level.BSNL, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications as well as the Internet Service Providers Association sent similar replies to the IT ministry earlier this month.The telcos' stance has not cut much ice with the home ministry. Justifying the need for system that enables regional ban on social media, a top home ministry official said this would help the government 'contain any such action to just a limited source or targeted area rather than an overall ban across the country'."This is an extreme step if everything fails. We need to sensitise all infrastructure providers to such issues on internal security and have asked the telecom department to work on the cost benefits for creating additional telecom architecture," the official added.Executives with three different telcos confirmed the IT and telecom ministry had asked them to build technologies to block websites on a regional basis, but said the industry’s stance remained unchanged as this could not be technically executed.“Telecom and Internet boundaries are not the same as geographical boundaries. A particular call or even multiple voice calls and websites can be monitored and tracked on regional basis. But for blocking a website in a particular state, all operators need to install gateways at every point where traffic enters and exits the region, and this involves exorbitant costs,” explained an executive with a leading mobile phone company.Another executive with a Mumbai-headquartered telco said mobile and Internet networks were linked at multiple levels within the country, making it impossible to block content in just a particular area. India has about 12 international gateways where voice and data traffic flows in and out of the country through submarine or land-based cables.“The infrastructure is already in place to block content at international gateway locations. Our response will be that these faculties be used to address security concerns,” added another executive with a Delhi-based telco.Last month, the government issued four separate orders to block about 20 Twitter accounts and nearly 310 other items online, including entire websites, YouTube videos and Facebook pages. The government said this was an emergency measure to curb rumours, after thousands of people from the northeast fled cities such as Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mysore fearing attacks.Around the same time, the government forced Twitter, to block six fake accounts, which were ‘misrepresenting’ Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.