Delhi High Court to hear Facebook and Google Appeal today

The Delhi high court will on Thursday take up the pleas filed by Google India and Facebook India challenging the summons issued by the lower court, for ‘offensive material’ posted on their websites.

Google and Facebook on Tuesday said that it was impossible for them to control the internet content uploaded by billions of people. Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for Google India, had said that the summons issued to social networking sites by a metropolitan magistrate showed complete lack of understanding about how the online system worked.

The issue relates to a constitutional issue of freedom of speech and expression, and suppressing it was not possible as the right to freedom of speech in democratic India separates us from a totalitarian regime like China

–Neeraj Kishan Kaul

The advocate had tried to mention the fact that Google India and Google Inc. were infact two different entities and that Google India had no control over the actions of the US counterpart, nor are they responsible for it.

While companies in the US protest the SOPA and PIPA, India is still fighting for freedom of speech and expression of mind.