The Supreme Court on Monday directed Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and WhatsApp to submit information on the complaints they had received on child pornography, rape and gangrape videos from January 1, 2016 till August 2017.
The apex court bench of Justices Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit told the internet giants to submit details of the action they had taken on these complaints, PTI reported. It also told the Ministry of Home Affairs to provide details on the number of cases prosecuted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences, or Pocso, Act 2012 during this period.
In July, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that it was taking major steps to block websites that host child pornographic content, including considering installing jammers in schools. The government had also said that around 3,500 websites hosting such content were blocked in June.
In March, the Supreme Court had set up a panel of experts to find a way to block videos of rape and child pornography from being uploaded on the internet. On December 5, 2016, the court had issued notices to Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, seeking their replies to a petition demanding an end to uploading and sharing content related to sexual offences on the internet. The petition was filed by the NGO Prajwala in Hyderabad.
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