The Delhi High Court is set to hear a petition filed by Google, Facebook and as many as 21 other social networking websites against warning by a trial court that ruled that these websites could face a ban if they did not remove “objectionable content” from their web pages.
It was on Friday that the Indian Government sanctioned to prosecute these sites since they were apparently found to “promote enmity between classes”. If that wasn’t all, the Delhi High Court had on Friday warned these websites that they could face the possibility of being blocked like some of them are in China if they failed to remove these objectionable content from their web pages. This was after the court also advised them to devise a mechanism to keep tabs on offensive content on these sites and to remove them without delay.
This whole Social Networking vs the Indian Government fiasco started off last month after Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had warned social networking websites to keep a check on offensive pages that were hosted on their platform. This was followed by a complaint from a Journalist, Vinay Rai who filed a criminal suit against these websites blaming them to host blasphemous and derogatory material. He feared that content like these in a public domain could even lead to riots.
It is fascinating to note that these cases have been filed under section 292 (sale of obscene books etc), 293 (sale of obscene objects to a young person etc) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC – all of which seem a misfit. I am not an expert when it comes to legal mumbo jumbo – but is it just me who feels that the sections under which the complaint has been filed seems a gross misfit? This, when apparently have an IT Act here in India sounds weird to me.
Anyway, one thing that is sure to happen is that there would be vehement opposition from people if the Government or the judiciary tries to enforce any kind of censorship on the Internet.
How do you think will this battle end?
