Google and Facebook face Indian censorship questions

INTERNET GIANTS Google and Facebook will appear in India's High Court to discuss their policies on removing web content that is deemed offensive.

The firms are appealing against a summons from a lower court that would force them to appear and answer questions about how well they respond to content takedown requests.

India Today reports that the Delhi High Court has already threatened Facebook and Google and is insisting on enforcing local rules. "Like China, we will block all such websites," it is reported as having said.

We have asked the firms to confirm this and comment on how they will respond. Facebook told us that it had nothing to say on the issue, and we are still waiting to hear from Google.

Governments are increasingly turning to the internet and communications and social networking providers as a means of keeping tabs in their citizens, and India is no different in this regard.

In the last year it has wrestled with Research in Motion (RIM) about access to its communications, and in October we reported that the Indian government and RIM had compromised on a Blackberry Messaging surveillance base in Mumbai. µ