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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Google India invokes freedom-of-speech shield

Google India invokes freedom-of-speech shield

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published Published on Jan 17, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 17, 2012
-The Telegraph

Google India, one of nearly two dozen online sites accused of hosting objectionable content, today said blocking them couldn’t be an option as that would violate the right to freedom of speech and expression in a democratic country.

“There are serious issues regarding freedom of speech and we are proud to have this freedom in our country unlike a totalitarian regime like China,” the website’s counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul told Delhi High Court.

Last week, high court judge Suresh Kait had warned lawyers for Google and social networking site Facebook that “like China, we (India) will block all such websites if they failed to screen and remove objectionable material”.

The websites are among 21 whose executives have been summoned to appear in person before a lower court on March 13.

The companies, which also include YouTube and Twitter, face legal action after the Centre last week sanctioned their prosecution for allegedly promoting enmity between classes and causing prejudice to national integration.

The government brought the further charge of outraging religious beliefs against the sites after asking them for months to screen “objectionable” content.

Earlier, on December 23, the magistrate’s court had found the accused companies prima facie liable.

The hearings followed petitions filed by Vinay Rai, a Delhi resident, who cited what he claimed were obscene depictions of Hindu deities, Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ.

“We are seeking to prosecute the websites which have done yeoman’s service to the world,” Google’s counsel Kaul said today. “This problem has arisen worldwide in various forms and it is not that only we are facing it.”

The lower court’s summons had been issued to the companies’ Indian subsidiaries, which argued they were not liable for the actions of their holding companies based abroad.

“Google India is just a subsidiary of the parent organisation Google Inc, which is a US-based company. The Indian subsidiary cannot be held responsible for an act by its parent company,” Kaul told the judge who had last week refused to stay the lower court’s summons.

The lawyer said Google India earned revenue through advertisements for its parent company and was not a search engine. “It is a distinct legal entity from its holding company, which is a search engine,” he said.

But the judge wasn’t convinced.

“Are you not a beneficiary of Google Inc’s business? If some illegal activity is being carried out by a tenant and the landlord is a beneficiary, then how can the landlord not know what’s happening?” the judge asked.

Kaul said blocking content before it was posted online was “simply impossible. Even if we were to block the word ‘sex’, for example, all data on ration cards, passports, etc, will get blocked in one go, as the word ‘sex’ figures in all this data.”

He also contended that Google merely led users to sites they were looking for. “The offending material belongs to the website which is controlled by the owner of the website. Google has no role to play in it,” he said.

The court came down heavily on the counsel for Facebook when he said the magistrate had been rather “fast” in issuing summons to his company.

“Within a week of filing of the petition the magistrate issued summons to us. I do not see any reason for him being so fast in this case,” the lawyer said.

“If the magistrate acts fast in disposing of the case then why do you have a problem? You have a problem also when he is slow.... Do not blame the court as it has to see the urgency of the matter and act accordingly,” the judge said.

Normally, summons are issued between three weeks and a month from the date of filing a petition.

Last week, 12 of the companies involved in the case had said their headquarters were outside India. The government is now issuing summons to their executives abroad.

The matter will come up again in the high court on January 19.

The Telegraph, 17 January, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120117/jsp/nation/story_15015538.jsp


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