The Supreme Court of India, comprising a bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Uday Umesh Lalit, has directed the Government of India, Facebook, Whatsapp, Google, Microsoft, etc., to remove the videos of rape, gang rape and child pornography from the internet. This order was passed by the Supreme Court on 23 October 2017 in the case of In Re: Prajwala Letter Dated 18.2.2015 Videos of Sexual Violence And Recommendations.
Previously, the Supreme Court had set up a Committee to assist and advise the Court on the feasibility of ensuring that videos depicting rape, gang rape and child pornography are not available for circulation and to protect the identity and reputation of the victims because circulation of such videos is not in public interest at all. This order was given after receiving a letter from NGO-Prajwala on 18.02.2015 which was converted into a suo moto PIL.
The committee has sent its recommendations to the Supreme Court of India which were running into two volumes including various proposals and recommendations made in order to ensure that the videos depicting rape, gang rape and child pornography are not available online. The Supreme Court has asked the Government and the stakeholders, i.e., Facebook, Whatsapp, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc., to implement these recommendations.
The Supreme Court has further directed that any information that is based on or is pursuant to the proposals and recommendations to the Government of India will be kept confidential so as not to reveal the technology used by the participating service providers and has asked the Government of India to make a status report before the next date of hearing regarding the implementation of the recommendations of the committee. It has been further directed that the proceedings of the next day would be held in-camera. The next date of hearing is 11.12.2017.
Click here to read the order.
