Filter content or face blackout, court warns Facebook, Google
Thursday January 12, 2012 10:05:44 PM,
IANS
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Facebook, Google move court; Delhi Police issued notice
The Delhi
High Court Wednesday issued notice to Delhi Police on a petition
filed against summons issued by a trial court to 21 websites,
including Facebook, Google, Yahoo and YouTube, for allegedly
hosting obscene and derogatory content.
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New Delhi: Like in
China, Facebook and Google India's websites can be blocked if they
fail to come up with a mechanism to check and remove derogatory
contents from their web pages, the Delhi High Court warned
Thursday.
"Like China, we will block all such websites," Justice Suresh Kait
said, after Facebook and Google India said that it was impossible
to control the derogatory contents uploaded on their websites.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Facebook India,
said: "It is impossible to control the contents with billions of
people accessing the site. A third party who uploads the content
is not touched and we are sought to be liable in the case."
"Facebook India is not the controller of Facebook.com, it is
Facebook.com which removes the content not me," he added.
Mukul Rohtagi, counsel for Google India, said: "Google India is an
Indian company and service provider is Google Inc., which is an
American company. A person can make complaints to the service
provider to remove derogatory contents not me."
Google in its petition said that it had been appointed as a
distributor of Google Inc's Adwords programme in India on a
principal-to-principal basis.
"Google has not been appointed as an agent, partner or franchise
of Google Inc. In its capacity as a distributor, the petitioner
engages in business development and promotional activities for
certain limited products that include Google search, Youtube and
Orkut," Rohtagi added.
He admitted that some articles were obscene but said the company
could not control that. He said: "People like crazy, obscene and
defamatory articles, we cannot control people's mind."
Neeraj Kishan Kaul for Google India said that the company was not
liable as someone else posted the derogatory contents.
The High Court Wednesday issued notices to the Delhi Police and
Vinay Rai who had filed the petition in the trial court against
the websites alleging they were hosting obscene and derogatory
content.
The move came as Facebook and Google approached the high court
challenging a trial court's order.
The trial court had observed that the material submitted by the
complainant contained obscene pictures and derogatory articles
pertaining to various Hindu deities, Prophet Mohammad and Jesus
Christ.
The trial court had also directed the central government to take
immediate and appropriate steps on the objectionable content on
the sites and file its report by Jan 13. The case would be heard
next Jan 16.
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Dhananjay Bele, President of Nashik
Industries & Manufacturers Association (NIMA). addressing the
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