Court orders Facebook, Google, others to remove hurtful content
24 Dec 2011
Issuing orders on a private complaint, a Delhi court today told 21 social networking site hosts, including Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and YouTube, to remove all "anti-religious" or "anti-social" content and file compliance report by 6 February 2012.
Additional civil magistrate Sudesh Kumar also directed the union government to take "immediate appropriate steps" and file a report on these in the court by 13 January.
The magistrate noted that material submitted by the complainant from these websites contained obscene pictures and derogatory articles pertaining to Prophet Mohammad, Jesus Christ and various Hindu gods and goddesses.
Representatives of two of the websites, Yahoo India and Microsoft, appeared in court and submitted that they have not got the copies of the court order or the complaint against them.
On 20 December, the court had issued summons to at least 21 social networking sites, including US giants Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and YouTube, asking them to appear before the court today over webcasting of allegedly objectionable content.
Judge Kumar accepted a criminal complaint by former spokesperson of the Darul Ul Uloom at Deoband and founder of FatwaOnline.org, Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi, and directed the government to take "immediate appropriate steps" in this regard.