Bangalore: The government has given a sanction for the prosecution of social networking sites like Google, Facebook and many more for objectionable content posted online. The Delhi High Court has warned that like China, India can shut down these sites, where 21 internet companies are seen to be in legal trouble. These companies have been charged for ‘promoting enmity between groups’ and ‘deliberate malicious acts intended to outrage.’

The internet companies said that they cannot develop a method to monitor defamatory or obscene material that's been posted on their sites. "No human interference is possible, and moreover, it can't be feasible to check such incidents. Billions of people across the globe post their articles on the website," as reported by NDTV. This received an angry response from the Delhi High Court.

The petition moved by a journalist named Vinod Rai has requested the court to remove objectionable content from 21 websites, of which 12 websites are of foreign-based companies. Vinod pointed out obscene depictions online of Jesus Christ, the Prophet Mohammed, and various Hindu deities.

On the other hand the counsel for Facebook, Google India, Yahoo India, and others appeared in the court seeking exemption on the ground that the matter was still pending in the Delhi high court and would be taken up Monday.

Sudesh Kumar, the Metropolitan Magistrate earlier summoned the accused companies to face trial for allegedly committing the offence punishable under section 292, for sale of obscene books etc and section 293, for sale of obscene objects to young person etc, of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

It was noted that the Central Government was directed by the magistrate to take immediate appropriate steps on the objectionable content of the sites, and file its report by Jan 13, as reported by TOI.