Google to Help Indian Authorities Nab Online Haters, Indian Paper Reports UPDATED

Google's social network will begin providing the IP addresses of individuals who post anti-Indian or content critical of revered political figures to its site as soon as Indian police send them an email, according to the Indian Express. UPDATE: Google says emails arenot enough. See below for response.

Anti-Shivaji forums or anti-Ambedkar postings or “hate India” campaigns on Google’s social networking site, Orkut, have been confounding authorities for quite some time now. Other than blocking the objectionable forums, the Mumbai Police could do little, except wait for the next one to pop up on the web, say, a “fan club” of wanted underworld dons.

But not any more. The Mumbai Police is finally equipped to track down such offenders and bring them to book. A single e-mail between the DCP in charge of the Enforcement Branch and the California-based company will now nail such persons.

Following a meeting between representatives of the site and the Enforcement Directorate last month, the Mumbai Police and Orkut have entered into an agreement to seal such cooperation in matters of objectionable material on the web.

“Early February, I met three representatives from Orkut.com, including a top official from the US. The other two were from Bangalore. We reached a working agreement whereby Orkut has agreed to provide us details of the ip address from which an objectionable message or blog has been posted on the site and the Internet service provider involved,” said DCP Enforcement, Sanjay Mohite. An encrypted code has also been agreed upon for such communication to prevent people from posing as the Mumbai Police and laying theirhandson such information.

Has Google's motto really been updated to "Don't be evil or anti-Indian"? I've put in a request for comment.

UPDATE 4:00 pm PST: Google issued a statement:

When dealing with requests from authorities, we are very careful to balance the interests of our users while still being as cooperative in the investigation and prosecution of crimes as possible. Authorities, including those in India, are required to provide appropriate legal process in order to get user-identifying information. Google has very high standards for user privacy and a clear privacy policy.

A spokeswoman adds that Googlerequires local authorities to follow legal processes, which an email is not. Google is dedicated to improving lines of communication with police in Mumbai so they can have a better relationship but says that users' rights are protected at every step of the way. But, the question of whether Google should be hosting servers in a country that limits free speech or how it decides what country's laws are adequate to protect their users was not something she was prepared to discuss. Hopefully,we'll be having that conversation soon.

Picked up from Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing.

Also a top Indian engineering school started restricting internet usage in its dorms, saying that addiction to the internet was changing how students interact and making them late for class.

Thanks, RC Photo: Shayan Sanyal