Mumbai-based Gremach Infrastructure Equipments & Projects Ltd. has filed the lawsuit demanding that Google to unmask the name of the blogger who criticized it using Google’s blogging service, the paper said.
The company alleges Google for hosting a series of articles on its blogging site, campaigning against its mines in Mozambique. In an interim order, the Bombay High Court has asked Google India to furnish information about the blogger.
“The Indian firm had acquired 75% stake in 11 coal mining licenses in the African country in September 2007.”
The blogger using a pseudo name called “Toxic Writer” posted a series of offensive articles between January and February, on the Google’s Blogger.com service, a site that permits individuals to create blogs without publicly revealing his/her identities, the paper said. The article amounted to a “hate campaign” against the company, according to Gremach.
The Journal reported that the Bombay High Court ordered the blog that was remove from service on Feb 26, and Google’s Indian subsidiary is claiming they are not responsible for the Blogger.com service.
“At the present stage, there is merit in the contention … that the article put up by the defendant on the blog site is defamatory,” the paper quoted the court as saying. The case’s outcome will have far-reaching implications for the development of cyber law in India.
So, an angry blogger expressing his views anonymously online? Sounds like pretty standard practice on the Web. But the case may force Google to re-examine their business in India, and the issue raises questions about the future of free speech and anonymity online.
John Watson, associate professor at American University specializing in communication law, says this case is not unusual, considering the location.
“One of the most common places for people to sue, because they will generally win, are nations that are or have formerly been part of the British Commonwealth, where there is no First Amendment, and the law looks more toward protecting the reputation of people than protecting the free speech of speakers,” Watson said in a statement.
“Google which is an American corporation enjoys a great deal of protection here in the United States, but in the rest of the world, it is subject to the laws of wherever these articles or communications are published,” he added.
And now Google will have to comply with the court’s order and while the blog itself is already down, it will also have to reveal the identity of the person behind the blog.
When contacted, a Google spokesperson said: “The case is sub-judice. We are not able to comment.” A source in Gremach said the company “suspects’ corporate rivalry behind the hate campaign” and has sought help from the Mumbai Police’s cyber crime cell. However, the investigations by the local police hit a dead end after Google’s India office refused to co-operate, he added.
Hence, Gremach then knocked at the doors of Bombay High Court against Google India, seeking information about the blogger.
This could possibly become an issue for bloggers bashing folks overseas, and break new ground for cases regarding anonymity. On the positive side, maybe it will support citizen journalists to back up their posts with more researched and trustworthy information.
A corporate attorney said Indian courts would have to determine on whether Google will have to reveal the blogger’s identity. In the US, the courts usually do not compel websites to divulge bloggers’ identity. “This is for the first time a blogging platform company is being sued in India,” said Anoop Narayanan, a partner in corporate law firm Majmudar & Co.
“As we do not have any particular laws governing this issue, the Indian court will have to consider the direct liability of Google, taking into consideration how important the disclosure is to the plaintiff (Gremach),” he added.
In 2006, Yahoo was accused by human rights activists of providing information to the Chinese police about bloggers who were later jailed for writing [anti-China] articles.
This is nothing new. Many other blogging services has to face a similar issue, including Google’s Orkut social networking service has also been asked to reveal identities of people who ran groups against the politicians in India. These people were then jailed for their actions.
A blog or a web log is an online diary published on a web page. Hundreds of companies, including market leaders Google and Yahoo, provide a platform to anyone with an e-mail identity to post articles/pictures on the internet. Often these blogs are misused, as anonymous bloggers, including corporates, use them to spread misinformation about rivals.
Only companies providing web logging platform and internet service providers have access to the bloggers internet protocol number — a unique number assigned to each computer — only they can divulge the blogger’s identity.
Bloggers all over the world have been prosecuted by governments for unsubstantiated articles. Many have been jailed. At the same time, platform providing companies have faced flak for providing information on bloggers to investigating agencies from pro-freedom of speech activists.