The Google and Facebook have been slapped a cost of 1 lakh rupees each for failing to intimate the court on the steps taken by them to block videos of sexual offenses on social sites. The internet giants Yahoo, Facebook Ireland, Facebook India, Google India, Google Inc, Microsoft, and Whatsapp have failed to file any document to inform about the progress made to the bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and U.U.Lalit.
The top court put the deadline as June 15 to file an affidavit on the measures taken by the service providers to curb such videos and also asked its registry to keep the amount in a fixed deposit for a short term. Under the court order dated April 16, the bench had required Yahoo, Facebook Ireland, Facebook India, Google India, Google Inc., Microsoft and WhatsApp to let them know the status of progress made pursuant to the recommendations accepted by these entities as mentioned in the Report of the Committee. Despite this order, the internet giants never filed any affidavit forcing the court to take up the matter by themselves.
See also:Are the Police here to support the culprits and their political bosses?
The center considering the urgency in the wake of the court order has decided to do away with the launching function of an online cybercrime reporting portal. The portal in its final form will be launched on or before July 15. The two months time is for the integration of the portal with Crime & Criminal Tracking Network & Systems and the Ministry of Home Affairs is coordinating with the states and union territories in this regard. The Top Court has given a final deadline to the Government to finish the whole exercise by June 30.
The Supreme Court earlier informed that the Home Ministry had identified and compiled certain keywords related to child pornography, rape and gang rape content search and also a list of keywords in the English language. This will be circulated to the content providers for further action. The Court had directed the center to have a web portal ready by today which would enable citizens to lodge complaints on sexual abuse, child pornography, and gang rape videos.
This serious issue was taken up by the Supreme Court in 2015, under the CJI H.L.Dattu, on the basis of a letter sent by Hyderabad based NGO Prajwala along with two rape videos in a pen drive. The court took cognizance of the letter and ordered a CBI probe to nab the culprits.
The need for a ‘clear-cut’ technical guidelines to be issued by the authorities rose during the CBI investigation on this case.CBI told the bench that the internet was a ‘wild highway’ and blocking the objectionable content at the source was a technical challenge. The center’s current Portal and the compilation of search words are aimed at overcoming this ‘technical challenge’.
The center is now undertaking the implementation of a National Sex Offender’s Register which shall contain details of persons convicted for offenses like eve-teasing, stalking, molestation and other sexual assaults. This happened thanks to Prajwala’s letter to the Supreme Court of India.
Post Your Comments