Delhi Court set Deadline for Social Networking Sites to remove Anti-religious or Anti-social Content

A Delhi court set 6 February as a deadline for 22 social networking sites including the Facebook, the Google, the Yahoo and the Microsoft to remove all anti-religious or anti-social content.The court directed the social networking sites to file compliance reports by 6 February 2012.

Additional Civil Judge Mukesh Kumar had on 20 December in a ex-parte order issued summons to the social networking websites, granted around one and half month for compliance of his order. The court after going through the several printouts of the objectionable contents, CD and other documents had found them defamatory and derogatory and ordered to take them off from the sites.

The social networking sites were issued summons by the court, on grounds of carrying objectionable content.
The companies were charged with section 292 (sale of obscene books etc), 293 (sale of obscene objects to young person etc) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

The court's order came amid a raging controversy over monitoring the content on Internet and of those websites depending on user generated contents. The issue surfaced after Union Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal asked the social networking websites to screen contents.

Social networking sites in India have been going through a rough phase, after the government began showing dislike for the content portrayed. as per the court's directive, in case the social networking sites fail to clear derogatory content off their websites by 6 February 2012 they would be charged for contempt of court.