Objectionable content: Google, YouTube off prosecution list

**New Delhi:**A court on Thursday permitted the deletion of Google and YouTube from a list of websites sought to be prosecuted for allegedly posting objectionable content on their sites.

Administrative Civil Judge Parveen Singh passed the order after petitioner Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi’s counsel Santosh Pandey said he had no objection to the plea of the two companies to delete their names from the list submitted by him.

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Google India and Youtube India told the court they were software-based companies and had no role in displaying content on their sites.

Meanwhile, Qasmi’s counsel submitted a revised list of companies sought to be prosecuted. Six new sites: Facebook India, Facebook Inc, Google Inc, Orkut, Youtube Inc, and Blogspot have been named.

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The court has listed the matter for further hearing on 18 April.

The petitioner has deleted the names of Zombie Time, Exboii, Boardreader, IMC India, My Lot, Shyni Blog and Topix from its list.

The court earlier had allowed the pleas of Yahoo India, Yahoo Inc and Microsoft India to drop their names from the list.

Qasmi, an Islamic researcher linked to a website run by the Islamic Peace Foundation of India, had sought the removal of objectionable content from around 20 websites.

IANS