India court petition against Facebook and Google

An Indian court on Wednesday asked Facebook, Google and other Internet firms to respond to a private petition over allegations of being a threat to national security and withholding tax. The complainant, K.N. Govindacharya, a right-wing Hindu activist, lodged his petition with the Delhi High Court against a range of social media companies, his lawyer said. "Mr Govindacharya has filed a case saying they are not doing enough to authenticate their users, and that is creating a big threat to cyber security and national security," Virag Gupta told AFP. He also alleged there was uncertainty over how much tax Internet firms were paying. "Facebook for example is generating huge revenue from advertisements," Gupta said. "These social networking sites are new for our economy, so they will have to regulated." Govindacharya's petition added that no Indian below the age of 18 should be allowed to use social media, even with parental consent. His petition is the most recent in a series of legal actions against Internet companies in India. Google and Facebook were both named along with 17 other smaller Internet firms in an ongoing criminal court case over alleged obscene content. Google is also facing an anti-trust probe into its online advertising practices, and a separate investigation over possible breach of domestic foreign-exchange transactions rules.