Facebook and Google are Internet intermediaries
within the meaning of cyber law of India. As internet intermediaries,
Facebook and Google are required to comply with various national and
international laws.
Internet
intermediaries in India are required to follow certain due
diligence requirements under the cyber law of India incorporated in
the information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000). If they fail to
observe such cyber due diligence, the safe harbour protection
available under the IT Act 2000 is lost.
While
pre
screening of contents and expecting Internet
intermediaries like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, YouTube,
Linkedin, etc to keep a vigil watch upon the Internet is simply
unreasonable and unrealistic yet asking Internet intermediaries to
block or remove offending contents, after they have been duly
notified in this regard, is a genuine need and reasonable
demand.
Such removal or non removal of objectionable and
offending contents cannot be considered to be right or wrong as per
Internet intermediaries or Indian government’s viewpoint. Rather an
independent analysis of the same must be made by courts keeping in
mind the facts and applicable laws.
Further, there must be
uniformity in application of Indian laws to all in similar
situations. If there is a discrimination against foreign companies
and favour for domestic companies, this undermines the confidence and
trust of online community world over. For instance, recently Reliance
and Airtel blocked websites in India whose
legality
is still doubtful. Department of information technology
(DIT) must
investigate
such blocking in order to rule out favoritism for domestic
companies.
It has also been reported that social media
websites users in other states of India are planning to engage in
legal battles in such states to access any blockage of such websites.
Legally they can do so but in the long run such a move would be
counter productive.
In the past, the argument of being a
subsidiary has kicked back and now the parent company has to face the
trial. Even if the subsidiaries are exempted from any criminal
liability, the liability of parent company is now emerging as an even
bigger issue. Let us see how Indian Courts would decide these cases.
