Google agrees to court order in India to remove content
- 07 February, 2012 00:37
- Comments
Google has agreed before a court in Delhi to remove religious and other content considered objectionable, though some other Internet firms are likely to appeal the court's decision, plaintiff Mufti Ajiaz Arshad Qasmi said on Monday.
Qasmi, a private citizen, had filed a civil suit against Google and other Internet companies including Facebook, objecting to certain content on their websites. The content is said to mock gods worshipped in India. He is now pressing the companies to put in place technology for filtering out content that is considered objectionable.
"This step is in accordance with Google's long-standing policy of responding to court orders," a Google spokeswoman in India said.
India has been sensitive to certain political and religious content on websites, and the country's minister for communications, Kapil Sibal, said in December that Internet companies should evolve a mechanism to remove objectionable content immediately after it is put up.
Google told the court of civil judge Praveen Singh that it had already removed some of the objectionable content, and promised to remove the remaining content pointed out by Qasmi in the 15 days given to it and other Internet companies to take down the content, Qasmi said.
In a separate criminal suit filed in Delhi by a newspaper editor, Vinay Rai, against objectionable content on websites of 21 Internet companies including Google and Facebook, Google India has argued that it is not responsible for third-party content, and in any case the sites are not owned and operated by Google India but its parent company, Google Inc.
The government allowed the court to prosecute the Internet companies under various Indian laws in the criminal case, but Google has meanwhile appealed the decision before the Delhi High Court.
"They are saying a different thing before each court," Rai said on Monday. "In the civil matter they have agreed to remove the content, which they had refused to remove in the criminal court."
The criminal case, however, holds Google responsible for the third-party content, and also named its officials as liable, said a person close to the situation, who declined to be named. The civil case is entirely about removal of certain content, the person added.
Google said last month it was directing users to localized country domains on Blogger to provide it flexibility to comply with content removal rules in various countries. Twitter also decided last month to withhold certain content from users in a specific country, when required by local laws, while keeping it available to the rest of the world.
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email CIO
- Follow CIO on twitter
-
Australia's first 4G smartphone is the HTC Velocity 4G
-
Swedish e-commerce startup's execs linked to NYC sex crime
-
Face Time - Interview with John Brennan and Robert DiStefano
-
How to implement next-generation storage infrastructure for Big Data
-
Pfizer's Future Depends on IT Transformation
-
Synergy gains sustainable competitive edge with HP printers, services and solutions
Western Australian electricity retailer Synergy signed a four-year HP Smart Print Services agreement to establish an efficient and sustainable imaging and printing network which reduces waste and the organisation’s environmental footprint, without compromising on quality, reliability or security. Read more. -
Protecting Generation Web
From data privacy to personal safety issues, cyber-bullying, inappropriate content and malware, schools are facing an increasingly difficult task when it comes to allowing young people to spread their online wings without compromising their safety and personal development. The reality that most schools are catering to the needs of mixed age groups and abilities, and it’s easy to understand why a simple stop and block approach won’t work. Learning environments are, by nature, flexible. It stands to reason that the IT resources used in them should be flexible too. Read on. -
Cost Effective Security and Compliance with Oracle Database 11g Release 2
Information ranging from trade secrets to financial data to privacy related information has become the target of sophisticated attacks from both sides of the firewall. Built upon 30 years of security experience, the Oracle database provides defense-in-depth security controls that enable organizations to transparently protect data. By leveraging these controls, organizations can safeguard data, ensure regulatory compliance, and achieve business goals such as consolidation, globalization, right sourcing and cloud computing while still maintaining scalability, performance and availability. Read this whitepaper.
-
Enterprise Architecture Planning
-
Beginning Programming with C++ for Dummies
-
Office XP 9-In-1 Desk Reference for Dummies
-
Introduction to Computer Music
-
Making Software Measurement Work
-
Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0
-
Flash Cs4 All-In-One for Dummies®
-
Knowledge Discovery with Support Vector Machines
-
Office 2010 for Dummies®








Comments
Post new comment