A government unable to keep pace with a fast-unfolding social media revolution, unable to fathom its unbridled power and reach, is now charged with unleashing tyranny on cyberspace Union IT Minister Kapil Sibal, however, junked allegations about throttling free speech and made a candid confession that the government is still coming to terms with the new, sweeping phenomenon called social media. "It's a new medium, it's an evolving medium. We don't know how to deal with it ourselves. We need to understand the power of the social media. No government is fully aware of its power or how to relate to it. And the government needs to use the medium to empower the people and not dilute it," Sibal told youngsters gathered to grill him at Town Hall as part of Headlines Today's 'Right to be Heard' campaign.Faced with a frenzy of criticism over the blatant misuse of Section 66A of the IT Act to make arbitrary arrests for even innocuous tweets, Sibal admitted the crackdowns were unacceptable, illegal and draconian and promised swift redressal. "Everybody is entitled to air their views on Twitter. You have the right to criticise and I promise our government won't harass you. I will give you my mobile number, you can SMS me. The government needs to be more proactive. State governments should ensure that police don't take law into their hands," he said.Sambhavi Saxena's impelling story of police harassment after her barrage of tweets on the crackdown on India Gate protesters or Ravi Srinivasan's account of how his harmless tweet against P. Chidambaram's son triggered a police crackdown raised questions of safeguards against state's intolerance to criticism.The GenNext said fear stalks the cyberspace as an iron-fisted political class is muzzling social media. "Nobody can be arrested under the IT law as it's a bailable offence. What happened was unacceptable. But these are just aberrations. If a policeman misinterprets the law, it doesn't mean the law is bad. The state government and civil society need to sit down and plug the lacunae. The matter is pending in the Supreme Court, let's wait for the verdict," Sibal said.Shaheen Dhada, who was arrested for her Facebook post questioning the Mumbai shutdown after Bal Thackeray's death, put up a poignant question - "We got freedom 65 years ago, but does freedom of speech exist?" A cornered Sibal said, "We have publicly condemned the arrest, but an isolated incident doesn't mean there's no freedom of speech. There's more freedom in India than anywhere in the world."But Sibal's regulatory reflex was betrayed when he spoke of restricting anonymity in the social space. "Freedom of expression doesn't mean tweeting through fake accounts. If the government has to be transparent, Twitterati should also reciprocate. This will help stop defamatory and criminal traffic on the Net. We should amend the law to force disclosure of identity," he said.