CCA issues notices to MSN, Google and Yahoo

The Department of Information Technology has informed that the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), and authority under the then section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 had directed M/s Google India, M/s Yahoo India and M/s Microsoft (MSN Search Engine) to ensure that no advertisements of sponsored links in respect of sex selection appear on search results on their websites M/s Google India, M/s Yahoo India and M/s Microsoft responded to such directions. M/s Yahoo India and MSN Search Engine stated that their search engine do not provide any sponsored links within India on sex selection or determination. Also they take due diligence to enforce such restriction. M/s Google has responded that their search engine do not allow users from India to search websites relating to prenatal sex determination. In case of an inadvertent slippage, and upon being notified of the presence of a non-complaint advertisement, a prompt and effective action is taken in disabling such sites by them. M/s Google has very clearly state that whenever an advertiser chooses to target users in India, the access to such advertisements is blocked to users with Indian IP address and users searching on the India domain loggers www.googleco.in. In addition, Google has developed technology that help implement the advertisement policy by preventing advertisements from appearing on certain “Keywords” on the Google website. The list of such keywords is constantly upgraded and there are on-going efforts to ensure that the list is comprehensive. The list of such keywords which have been blocked from triggering or sponsored results include – sex determination, determination of sex/gender, male/female selection method, choose the gender of your baby, gender determination, gender pre-selection, gender prediction, gender selection, sex pre-selection, sex prediction, sex selection etc.

This information was given by Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare, Shri Dinesh Trivedi in written reply to a question raised in Rajya Sabha today.

source: http://www.pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=60976