Delhi court bars networking sites from webcasting ‘offensive’ content

In the midst of a debate on monitoring Internet content,a Delhi court has banned several social-networking websites from hosting any “anti-religious” or “anti-social” content that may promote hatred or communal disharmony. The websites include Facebook,Google and YouTube. Additional Civil Judge Mukesh Kumar,in an ex-parte order,directed the websites to remove any objectionable content — be it in the form of photographs,videos or text — that is likely to hurt religious sentiments. The court had passed the order on Tuesday with regard to a civil suit filed by Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi through advocate Santosh Pandey,who had also submitted the printouts of contents acquired from websites. While Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal has been calling for curbs on objectionable material on the Internet for the last few months,US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had recently advocated freedom of the Web across the globe.