Google, Facebook and 19 other social network sites face legal action

Google, Facebook and 19 other social networking sites faced legal action for offences of promoting enmity between classes after the Government granted sanction to prosecute them.

The Government on Friday told a Delhi court there is sufficient material to proceed against the 21 social networking sites which included Yahoo and Microsoft for offences of promoting enmity between classes and causing prejudice to national integration.

"The sanctioning authority has personally gone through the entire records and materials produced before him and after considering and examining the same, he is satisfied that there is sufficient material to proceed against the accused persons under section 153-A, 153-B and 295-A of the IPC," the Centre said in its report placed before Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar.

The two-page report was placed after the court directed Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to get the summons served on over ten foreign-based companies. The summons were issued on December 23 last but they remained unserved.
The court had on December 23 issued summons to 21 social netorking websites for allegedly committing offences of criminal conspiracy, sale of obscene books and sale of obscene objects to young persons.

It had said prima facie the accused companies were liable to be summoned for promoting enmity between classes, causing prejudice to national integration and insulting religion or religious belief of any class, but the summons could not be executed without having prior sanction of central or state government or the district magistrate.

The Department of Information Technology, in its report, granted saction to proceed against the 21 companies for allegedly promoting enmity between classes and causing prejudice to national integration.

The Delhi High Court had on Thursday warned social networking site Facebook India and search engine Google India that websites can be "blocked" like in China if they fail to devise a mechanism to check and remove objectionable material from their web pages. "Like China, we will block all such websites," Justice Suresh Kait said while asking counsel for Facebook and Google India to develop a mechanism to keep a check and remove "offensive and objectionable" material from their web pages.

Former Additional Solicitor General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Google India, said the postings of "obscene, objectionable and defamatory" articles and other things cannot be "filtered" or "monitored". "No human interference is possible, and moreover, it can't be feasible to check such incidents. Billions of people across the globe, post their articles on the website. Yes, they may be defamatory, obscene but cannot be checked," he said.

Search engines like Google India did not host material and it simply takes a netizen to his destination, it was stated. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) A S Chandhiok, appearing for the Centre, objected to the plea of Google India saying the US-based Google Inc has "sufficient mechanism" to know that what is offending material.

-Asian Tribune-