Not a social media intermediary under New IT Rules: Google moves Delhi High Court

Google LLC has moved an appeal before the Delhi High Court against single Judge order for misinterpreting and misapplying the New Information Technology Rules, 2021 to hold that it is a “significant social media intermediary”. (Google LLC vs X & ors).A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh sought response from the Central government and other respondents in the matter. .Senior Advocate Harish Salve's request for an interim order to protect Google from any coercive action pursuant to the single Judge's order was, however, turned down by the Court. ."We will see.", the Court said. .As per Google, the Single Judge order mischaracterized Google Web Search as a “social media intermediary” or “significant social media intermediary” as defined under Rule 2(1)(w) or 2(1)(v) of New Rules 2021 when it is nothing but an "aggregator". ."Google is an aggregator. We are an intermediary but we are not a social media intermediary..", Senior Advocate Salve said. .In its petition, Google has asserted that the function of a search engine is to only crawl and index existing information which is available or published or hosted by independent third-party websites. .It, therefore, ex facie does not fall within the definition of a social media intermediary and the obligations under Rule 4 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021cannot extend to it. .The Rule speaks of "Additional Due Diligence to be observed by a significant social media intermediary”. .Senior Advocate Salve also objected to some of the general observations and "template directions" passed by the Single Judge with respect to blocking of content. .Salve contended that a template order for all grievances was in contravention of the IT Act, its Rules and Guidelines which are to be applied de novo to each instance of content..He highlighted that there were designated officers who block objectionable content within 24 hours of a complaint. .Specifically objecting to the direction to block content globally, Senior Advocate Salve said, "We can block in India. We can't block for the whole world.".The order was passed by the Single Judge while dealing with the grievance raised by a woman whose private photos had been posted on pornographic websites without her permission..The Court had, thereafter, passed a detailed order on directions to be issued to search engines and intermediaries to deal with similar situations. .Senior Advocate Shyam Diwan with Advocate Sarthak Maggon appeared for the woman. ."There is doubt on maintainability. We are opposing.", Divan said. .Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma said that the matter required consideration. .The matter would be heard next in July end. .Block search results, remove identical content and more: Delhi High Court issues guidelines on removal of offensive internet content