The Supreme Court on 21st May, 2018 imposed a fine of Rs. 1 lakh on internet giants such as Google and Facebook for failing to file their replies pursuant to the Supreme Court directive to list the steps taken by the firms to block videos of sexual offenses on the virtual platforms.
The Court had earlier ordered the firms to file an affidavit in this respect by June 15 and depositing an amount with the registry in a fixed deposit.
The order was issued by a bench comprising of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit.
Earlier the same bench had passed a order dated April 16, requiring firms like Google Inc., Google India, Facebook Ireland , Facebook India, Yahoo, Microsoft and Whatsapp informing them about their failure to update the Court with any measures taken.The aim of this order is to curb the videos of such nature.
In this regard, the Ministry of Home Affairs in coordination with the State and the Union Government is promulgating Portal Integration with Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems. Also, as far as Institutional Mechanism at Central level is concerned, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is in talks with the States and other Ministries.
The Government has stated that all the three activities shall be completed within a period of two months, i.e. by July 15.But the court in its order however maintains that ample time had been provided to the firms and the penalty thus imposed is reasonable.
The court in its order said None of these entities has filed anything to show us the progress nor any of these entities is ready with any response pursuant to our aforesaid order.
It also directed the Centre to have a web portal ready by Monday, 21 May, to enable citizens lodge complaints on child sexual abuse, child pornography and gang rape videos.
The matter will next be taken up on Monday, 2 July, the report says. In March last year, the court had devised a committee to “assist and advise” it on ensuring that videos depicting gang rape, child pornography and rape are not available online.