Indian court summons Google, Facebook and other websites

[News_Editor]

Indian court summons Google, Facebook and other websites

2011-12-24 10:00:10 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW DELHI (BNO NEWS) -- An Indian court on Friday issued a summons to social networking website Facebook, search giant Google, Yahoo!, video-sharing website YouTube and seventeen other websites to stand trial for allegedly publishing 'objectionable contents.'

New Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar claimed that the websites contain obscene pictures and content offensive to Hindus, Muslims and Christians. The court's order comes just three days after another court restrained these websites in a civil case from publishing any 'anti-religious' or 'anti-social' content which promotes hatred or communal disharmony.

"It is also evident that such contents are continuously, openly and freely available to everyone who is using the said network, irrespective of their age and even the persons under the age of 18 years have full and uncensored access to such obscene contents," the court said, as quoted by the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Earlier this month, the Indian government vowed to stop what it calls 'offensive and defamatory' content on internet websites. However, several major websites immediately rejected the plan and Indian officials complained their requests fell on 'deaf ears'.

Telecommunications minister Kapil Sibal said on December 6 that the government does not want to interfere with the freedom of the press. However, he said, if the social networking websites are not willing to cooperate, then it is "the duty of the government" to ensure "blasphemous material" does not appear on the internet.

Social networking site Facebook, which has more than 25 million users in the country, said it would remove any content that is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity from the service. "We recognize the government's interest in minimizing the amount of abusive content that is available online and will continue to engage with the Indian authorities as they debate this important issue," Facebook said in a statement earlier this month.

Google said it would abide by local laws and take any material off if it violates its policies. "But when content is legal and does not violate our policies, we will not remove it just because it is controversial, as we believe that people's differing views, so long as they are legal, should be respected and protected," the company's spokesperson said, as quoted by PTI.

India has about 100 million internet users, the third-largest number after China and the United States.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-12-24

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Social fascism is marching forward.

While India marches backward?

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" a bureaucracy, environment hostile to foreign investors and a choking net of corruption " is this not a description of most Asian and Southeast Asian nations?

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