Asia Bizz: The petitions filed by Facebook and Google over the objectionable content will be heard by the Delhi High Court on January 23, 2012. The companies in the case had earlier challenged a trial court summons, in which the websites were alleged for the objectionable content.
Criminal proceedings are being faced by the social networking sites like Google and Facebook including 16 other websites. Facebook and Google have argued that it is difficult for them to screen the content by billions of users who access the website everyday and that it was also the question of freedom of expression.
On January 19, 2012, the Delhi High Court adjourned the case against Google as well as Facebook till February 2, 2012. It was also argued by the websites earlier that India is a democratic country, where there is freedom of expression and not a totalitarian country like China.
Google even argued that blocking the content wasn’t an option in democracy. On the other hand, Yahoo argued that it does not come under the social networking site segment and that its trial must be heard separately. Meanwhile, Facebook noted that it already has rules for blocking as well as removing content when certain matters are brought in to notice. The websites are now challenging the trial court’s order.
