SC asks search engines to ban online ads on sex-determination

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed search engines to develop in-house methods to prohibit flashing of advertisements pertaining to pre-natal sex determination

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed search engines to develop in-house methods to prohibit flashing of advertisements pertaining to pre-natal sex determination on their home page, saying they were under obligation to check such ads.

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“In our considered opinion, they (Google, Yahoo and Microsoft) are under obligation to see that the ‘doctrine of auto block’ is applied within a reasonable period of time,” the bench headed by justice Dipak Misra said, emphasising that the companies need to introduce an in-house mechanism to block the sites instead of waiting for an outsider to point it out.

The court direction came after solicitor general Ranjit Kumar told the top court that Indian units of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have agreed to follow the law on sex determination. “They have assured that they would not allow any advertisement or publish any content on the issue on their respective search engines,” Kumar told the bench.

Submitting a list of “proposed 43 key words”, Kumar said sites containing these words will be automatically blocked. “Nothing would be reflected on the internet and a warning will be flashed informing the user about the law that prohibits pre-natal sex determination,” the law officer informed court.

During the hearing, the lawyers appearing for the online search engines informed the court that the principle of auto-block will immediately apply and advertisements would not be shown once the keywords are fed.

But, in case of a new word, the search engine needs to be informed about it.