Delhi HC asks Centre, Google, YouTube to remove offensive content of a woman from internet

The Central government, Google, Youtube and the cyber cell of the Delhi Police Union have been asked by the Delhi High Court to take necessary steps to withdraw the sites and links carrying content such as videos and pictures of a woman from the internet.

The directions were issued by Justice Subramonium Prasad on Tuesday while examing a petition of a woman seeking the court's directions to the respondents to remove any sexually explicit, nude or morphed pictures of her showing in their websites. The woman, in her petition, also sought directions to the Union government to block websites working as pornographic sites under counterfeit names. 

The bench said, "It is made clear that this is not an adversarial litigation and it is expected that from respondents Google LLC, YouTube, Union of India and the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police to take necessary steps to remove the sites and links, carrying objectionable photos and videos of the petitioner, from the internet before the next date of hearing, which is September 16, 2021."

The court stated that to make the action sooner of withdrawing such links and sites, the Cyber Cell of Delhi police is being impleaded in the array of parties.

Meanwhile, the Centre's counsel Advocate Anurag Ahluwalia assured the bench that the necessary steps will be taken by the concerned authorities to remove links and sites.

The court had earlier held that posting photos on an obscene website amounts to an offence under the Information and Technology Act. The Delhi HC had also put out guidelines to be observed by courts while dealing with the removal of offensive content from the internet to ensure access to such obscene material is restrained and is not re-posted.

Delhi man stalked girls, morphed pictures for blackmail

Earlier this year, a similar crime came to light where a 19-year-old youth was arrested by police for stalking over 50 girls, including minors, through social media platforms. After stealing their photos from social media, the accused use to morph them and threatened them to make the pictures go viral. He also sent obscene messages to minor girls using a fake account with a name and picture of a random girl.

(With ANI inputs)