On Wednesday, Supreme Court slammed internet giants like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft for not working according to Indian laws and streaming of ads which supported sex-determination tests.
The court has directed the search engines to monitor bodies and to remove offensive ads related to sex-determination tests.
Supreme court gave its verdict after a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) sought a ban on foreign websites which are said to be soliciting couples to undergo sex determination tests. The PIL was filed by petitioner Sabu Mathew George in 2008.
The apex court bench was headed by Justice Dipak Misra.
“Google India, Yahoo India, and Microsoft India need to be more responsive. Earlier also, there were several examples of foreign jurisdictions banning similar content, so why not in India. They have not shown a proper attitude, by claiming that even content on illegal issues such as murder, rape cannot be blocked,” the apex court bench told.
The Centre has been approached to take a look at these search engines and set up a nodal agency within a week and to remove these ads.
The Internet Giants told the Supreme Court that they are merely intermediaries and are not responsible for third party content. However, they are actively working to remove such offensive ads but cannot manipulate for search results on the site.
The case will be next heard on April 11th, 2017.
