Google, Microsoft, Facebook receive notice from Indian court over illegal activities
Silicon Valley giants have found themselves in legal hot water in India.
India’s top court has expressed concern over illegal activities and cyber abuse that occur on Facebook as well as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo search engines.
The Supreme Court has sent notice to the companies asking why they aren’t preventing users from behaviors including circulating rape videos and posting other private content without the subjects' consent. The companies have until Jan. 9 to respond.
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The matter was brought to the court by Prajwala, a Hyderabad-based NGO, which requested the service providers remove offensive materials immediately after the content was brought to their attention.
Though these companies often block offensive content on their platforms, the issue in this instance is a lack of communication between the tech behemoths, service providers, local government and carriers.
"Once reported, the said offensive image or post or video shall be indexed in a shared database and the same shall be taken down and the account shall be reported to the authorities concerned within a span of 36 hours," NGO's counsel, Aparna Bhat said.
This isn't the first time the Indian court has had an issue with leading tech companies. In July, it concluded that Google, Bing, and Yahoo had hosted advertisements for tools, kits, and clinics that helped people determine the sex of a fetus, an act that is illegal in India.
