Delhi HC asks Google, Youtube to delete objectionable photos, videos of a woman

The court issued the order while examining a petition of a woman seeking court directions to the respondents to block any nude, sexually explicit or morphed photos of her showing on websites.

The Delhi high court has directed tech giant Google and its video streaming platform YouTube to take necessary steps to remove the links carrying objectionable photos and videos of a woman from the internet. The same order is also issued for the central government and the Cyber Cell of the Delhi Police Union.

The court has given the parties time till September 16 to act on the order, when the next hearing will take place. (Reuters)

The court issued the order while examining a petition of a woman seeking court directions to the respondents to block any nude, sexually explicit or morphed photos of her showing on websites. In her petition, the woman has also asked the court to direct the central government to block websites that have pornographic content but operating under pseudo names.

The court has given the parties time till September 16 to act on the order, when the next hearing will take place.

"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 bench led by Justice Subramonium Prasad said.

Meanwhile, advocate Anurag Ahluwalia, counsel appearing for the Centre assured the Court that the authority concerned will take necessary steps for the removal of the sites and links from the internet carrying objectionable photographs and videos of the petitioner.

Earlier, the court held that posting photographs in a pornographic site prima facie amounts to an offence under the IT Act. The Delhi high court had also laid down guidelines to be followed by courts while dealing with cases related to the removal of objectionable content from the internet to ensure access to such offensive material is restricted at the earliest and it is not re-posted anywhere else by others.