By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: Delhi High Court has directed the government of India to ensure that Youtube immediately blocks the ‘offensive’ contents of the film ‘Innocence of Muslims.’
While disposing a writ petition filed by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind general secretary Maulana Mahmood Madani against the controversial film Delhi HC directed the government to also see to it that if the offensive content is hosted on any other server and web-link is brought to the notice of the authorities, then the government would make a request to the concerned service provider to block such a URL.
The Honourable Chief Justice VK Jain also permitted the petitioners to bring any information, which they gather in this regard, to the notice of the respondents, who shall take prompt action in accordance with law as and when any relevant information is provided to them by the petitioners or otherwise comes to their knowledge.
The High court has passed this judgment after expressing satisfaction over the responses sought from government of India and Delhi police on the PIL by petitioners.
In their response, the senior standing counsel for NCTD, The learned ASG placed on record that more than 190 URLs were ordered to be blocked. In addition, 52 more URLs were blocked under the provision of rules notified under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.
Expressing his excuse, the learned ASG stated that content filtering, particularly for video/ image is very difficult and a full proof mechanism has not been developed as yet. Content filtering, based on text/keywords may filter genuine and innocuous content as well, wherever such keyword appears. Content creators are also becoming smarter by giving seemingly innocuous headings for the content which is otherwise, objectionable. They also told that foreign intermediaries do not always cooperate, insisting that they are governed by their country s laws and their own terms of usage only. Besides that the internet technology is such that the same content of the blocked pathway can re-surface on different servers from different locations by changing the addresses.
Earlier in December 2012, Senior advocate R S Suri and Munis Abbasi appeared on behalf of Mualana Mahmood Madani before the court had contended that the film Innocence of Muslims and its variants, which portray the Prophet of Islam, Prophet Mohammad, in an insulting, disrespectful, derogatory, defamatory, offensive, crude and humiliating manner, is being shown, exhibited transmitted or broadcast in India on video hosting site Youtube and other social networking sites. The offending movie continues to be available on internet despite protests all across the world.