(Madan B. Lokur and Uday Umesh Lalit, JJ.)
In Re: Prajwala Letter Dated 18.2.2015 Videos of Sexual Violence and Recommendations
SMW (Crl.) No(s). 3/2015, decided on January 8, 2018
The Order of the court was delivered by
Order
1. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and learned amicus curiae.
2. Learned Additional Solicitor General has placed on record a status report in the matter of Videos of sexual violence and recommendations.
3. It is stated in the status report, inter alia, that the Ministry of Home Affairs has identified the keywords for child pornography/rape and gang rape content search and a list of keywords in English language has been compiled and circulated to content providers for further action. Efforts are being made to update the list on regular basis.
4. It is orally submitted before us that the keywords in other languages will also be taken up for consideration in due course of time.
5. It is further stated that online cyber crime reporting portal has been developed with access name as www.cyberpolice.gov.in and that this portal is undergoing security audit and has been deployed in staging environment for testing and trial. It is expected that it will be operational very soon.
6. It is further stated that certain features will be made operational by 10th January, 2018 and offered to public such as anonymous reporting of child pornography/rape/gang rape content and online registration of cyber complaints which will be forwarded to the concerned State/UT police authorities for appropriate action.
7. It is also stated that certain other features are likely to be made operational by 10th February, 2018 with regard to providing status update of complaints to registered complainants, portal access to other stakeholders willing to register for providing inputs on child pornography/rape/gang rape content and maintaining hash tag of obscene content.
8. For the time being, we adjourn the matter to 15th February, 2018 at 2.00 p.m. so that we are made aware of the progress made by the Union of India in this regard. Further orders will be passed after the hearing on 15th February, 2018.
9. It is stated by learned counsel for the petitioner that her impression is that Facebook is developing or has developed new “proactive detection” technology for real time screening through artificial intelligence. In this regard, learned counsel appearing for Facebook may file an affidavit indicating whether any such technology has been developed and if it has not been developed the progress made for developing such technology, if any. The affidavit be filed within three weeks.
10. List the matter on 15th February, 2018 at 2.00 p.m.
11. It is made clear that on the next date of hearing also the proceedings will be held in-camera.
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