Child Porn & Rape Videos: SC Slaps Rs.1-Lakh Fine Each On Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Whatsapp [Read Order]

The Supreme Court has imposed costs of Rs. 1 lakh each on Yahoo, Facebook Ireland, Facebook India, Google India, Google Inc., Microsoft and Whats App for failing to abide by the directions given by it in the matter of videos of sexual violence and child pornography.

A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur had, in an earlier order, required the social media giants and Microsoft to brief it about the status of progress made pursuant to the recommendations accepted by them.

None of these entities has filed anything to show us the progress nor any of these entities is ready with any response pursuant to our aforesaid order. We direct these entities to file an affidavit on or before 15th June,2018 giving us the status of the progress made, the bench observed while directing the Registry to accept the affidavit filed by these entities along with costs of Rs.1 lakh each.

Grants further time to MHA

The Central government submitted that the Online Cyber Crime reporting portal in its final form will be launched on or before 15th July, 2018. It also stated that Portal Integration with CCTNS is likely to take about two months’ time and the Ministry of Home Affairs is coordinating with the States and the Union Territories in this regard.

We find that a substantial amount of work still remains to be done. In our opinion, more than sufficient time has been taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs to complete these tasks and to complete other tasks. the bench observed granting further time to the Ministry of Home Affairs to complete the tasks on or before 30th June, 2018.

Background

The Supreme Court had constituted a committee while hearing a suo motu PIL registered on the basis of a letter from NGO-Prajwala to the effect that videos of sexual violence were being circulated in abundance via internet and WhatsApp. The committee filed a comprehensive report in two volumes and the court noted that there were 11 proposals on which there is an agreement between the members of the committee.

The court had then asked the parties, including the government, to implement 11 recommendations of Ajith Kumar committee appointed by the court, which is coordinating with WhatsApp, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo Etc. to remove rape, gang rape and child pornography videos.