Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Delhi HC to hear Google, Facebook petitions today

The Delhi high court will on Thursday take up the pleas filed by Google India and Facebook India challenging the summons issued by the lower court, for 'offensive material' posted on their websites.
Google India and Facebook India Monday had on january 16 told the high court that it


was impossible for them to control content with billions of people accessing the websites.
The court then adjourned till Jan 19 the hearing related to allegedly objectionable content on 21 websites.

Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for Google India, had said that the summons issued to social networking sites by a metropolitan magistrate showed complete lack of understanding about how the online system worked.

He had argued that the issue was related to the freedom of speech.

"The issue relates to a constitutional issue of freedom of speech and expression, and suppressing it was not possible as the right to freedom of speech in democratic India separates us from a totalitarian regime like China," he said.

Arguing that Google India and Google Inc were different entities, he clarified: "It has nothing to do with Google India directly or indirectly, I am not responsible for it."

He submitted that the petitioner company had no control over websites where the objectionable material was posted.

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